


The Trap

by Athaia



Series: Planet of the Apes: Hunted [5]
Category: Planet of the Apes (TV)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Cooperation Gambit, Fan Reboot, Gen, Post-Apocalypse, episode based
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-11
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-01-16 03:07:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 31,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12334251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Athaia/pseuds/Athaia
Summary: When Virdon and Urko are trapped in an old subway station after an earthquake, they are forced to cooperate in order to survive, while above ground, Burke and Galen have to convince Urko’s lieutenant to cease hostilities for the rescue of the two. The uneasy truce is broken, though, when Urko discovers a damning artefact from Earth’s past...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the screenplay by Edward J. Lakso
> 
> Many thanks to my fabulous beta Naynish!!!
> 
> I changed Burke's and Virdon's roles, a) because I can (this is a reboot), and b) because Burke will get hurt plenty in the next episode, and I wanted a bit of balance.

The sun was almost at its highest point in the sky and was burning so viciously on Virdon’s neck that he wished he still had the straw hat that Zana had bought him back in the capital. He had miscalculated the distance of this village from the border of the Forbidden Zone - if they had wanted to reach it in the cool morning hours, they would’ve needed to break camp in the middle of the night.

Human settlements were few and far between now, and ape density was even lower, but he still didn’t dare to leave the Forbidden Zone for traveling; it stretched all the way North to the mountains, according to Galen’s map, so they only had to leave it if they needed to stock up on food. Nobody dared to enter the Zones, and Virdon hoped that staying inside those taboo areas would throw any pursuer off their scent. Urko might have called off the hunt after all those weeks... but maybe Aken’s report had raised suspicion, describing a traveling group of two apes and two humans.

Virdon didn’t want to find out.

He squinted against the glare: so far, only humans were moving between the huts, and he hadn’t seen any hoof tracks on their way to the settlements, either. It didn’t reassure him; in his experience, it was always safe to assume that an ape was just beyond the hilltop or a bend in the road.

„Seems peaceful,“ Burke murmured behind him. „Must be because it’s not so ape-infested.“

„This district is only sparsely populated,“ Galen said. „But the Northern districts are mining for iron and minerals, so you’ll have a greater... _ape infestation_ there.“

„Lemme guess who they’re sending down those mines,“ Burke muttered, ignoring Galen’s sarcasm.

Virdon wasn’t yet willing to believe his luck. „You mean there’s a good chance this village isn’t guarded?“

Galen gave him a sideways glance. „Not all districts have insurgencies to battle, Alan.“ He gestured towards the village. „I know the prefect of this area - a second cousin on my father’s side - and the only thing he’s complaining about is the weather and the mosquitoes. Oh, and the earthquakes.“ He held up his hands in surprise when both men turned to stare at him.

„The _what?“_ Burke yelped.

„They’re nothing serious,“ Galen hastened to assure them. „Just a little swaying of the ground, and they hardly ever result in people being seriously injured.“

Burke buried his head in his arms with a groan.

„Let’s go and buy some food, then,“ Zana murmured. „The heat is killing me.“

The villagers were friendly and curious and not too cowed by their simian companions, Virdon noticed; apparently, the local ape masters weren’t too strict with their subjects. They ran into another, unexpected problem, though: nobody wanted to sell them anything.

„They have no use for money,“ Galen concluded with a sigh. „In these remote areas, people produce most of what they need themselves, and barter for the few things they can’t grow or make.“

„Yeah, I admire their homesteading skills, too,“ Burke kicked at a pebble. „Thing is, we don’t have anything they’d need, so what do _we_ barter with?“

„I could offer my scarf,“ Zana suggested hesitantly. It was the gold-and-green silk scarf she had bought as camouflage during their mad escape from the capital, and most of the time, she had carried it tucked away in her backpack. Her tone indicated that she still found it hard to let go of it; in a way, it was the last remnant of her old life.

Virdon laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder. „I don’t think it’s necessary, Zana - it’s nothing they’d need, either.“

„But it may be something they’d _want,“_ she objected and tilted her head towards a group of young women who had gathered around the well on the village square and were unabashedly sizing up Pete... and him.

„It seems to me that it’s not your scarf that they are lusting after, dear,“ Galen said innocently, and bent over his backpack to ostensibly search for something to barter with.

Burke stared down on his back. „Did you just think aloud about selling our... ‘services’ to them for food?“ His voice was flat.

Galen jerked up with a shocked expression. „No, of course not, I’d never...“ He frowned when he caught Burke’s smirk.

„’Course you did. It’d just be like chaining us to a plough... or a water pump for days. And days, and d...“

„Check your backpack, Pete,“ Virdon cut their banter short. „If we can’t find anything they’d trade for, we leave. I don’t want to spend any more time outside the Zone than I have to.“

In the end, the only things that Virdon thought might have a chance of raising interest were Zana’s scarf and one of his magnetized sewing needles - provided he’d be able to explain to these people what a compass was, and provided they’d even need such a thing; in his experience, humans rarely left their villages to travel, unless they were herded somewhere for work by the apes.

He took Zana’s scarf and scanned the people milling about for a promising victim, but before he could settle on one, his attention was caught by a middle-aged man with a thin beard and a broad smile on his face, who now strode across the village square and bowed slightly before Zana and Galen.

„I’m Leon. Please excuse the rude behaviour of these peasants,“ he said with a wink, „you must be tired and hungry. I can offer you shade and a midday meal - I’d be honored if you’d accept.“

„Oh, that’s too kind of you.“ Zana grabbed her backpack. „Do lead the way.“ She waved for Galen as the man turned away; Virdon and Burke shook their heads, but had no choice but to follow them.

„Even the humans treat us like slaves,“ Burke muttered under his breath.

Virdon didn’t answer. Zana was capable of making rash decisions, but in the last few days she had been unusually moody; this was just the latest example.

But she had complained about the heat. Perhaps it was the prospect of getting out of the scorching sun that had her accept the offer in a hurry. And, well, perhaps he could convince the man to accept the scarf in exchange for supplies later. If anything, they’d at least get lunch.

A sudden dizziness grabbed him as he stepped over the threshold, and he had to steady himself against the doorframe to stay on his feet. No, Virdon realized when he saw the others stumble and reach for something to hold on to, it wasn’t him; the ground was swaying. He swallowed hard against the nausea lodging in the pit of his stomach, and leaned against the wooden beam until the ground stopped moving.

Leon didn’t seem too fazed about the incident; so Galen had been right, and slight tremors were a frequent occurrence in the area. His wife, however, was white as a sheet. Her hands trembled as she put down the plates, and when she came to one place at the table, Virdon saw tears in her eyes.

„Is everything all right, ma’am?“ he asked in a low voice.

The woman shook her head, lips pressed into a thin line. „My daughter hasn’t returned yet... and I’m sure she’s been to the ruins again. It’s dangerous there even when the ground isn’t shaking, but now...“ She fought back new tears. „What if she’s buried under one of those big houses?“

„Don’t frighten yourself or our guests, Asa,“ Leon chided her. „Delia is a clever girl, she’ll be back soon. Those tremors aren’t dangerous.“

„Here they aren’t,“ his wife shot back, „but those ruins - the houses there are taller than trees, even though they’re half destroyed.“

Virdon exchanged a look with Burke. Ruins of houses taller than trees? Perhaps big enough to have scraped the sky once?

„These ruins,“ he asked cautiously, „where are they?“

The woman shook her head and turned away to sit down at her place across the table; it had dawned on her - too late - that she shouldn’t talk to strangers about her daughter’s violation of this world’s strongest taboo.

Virdon smiled at her, trying to ease her concern. „We travel inside the Blasted Zone sometimes; and we found that none of the stories are true. It’s just deserted land, with some old ruins here and there. Although I can see why your daughter wants to explore them - I’m curious myself after what you told us. Are the houses really higher than the trees?“

Asa picked at her meal, avoiding his gaze. „I don’t go there; it’s cursed land. I told Delia time and again not to go there, either, but the girl just won’t listen.“ She finally looked up and gave a light shrug. „The houses... that’s what Delia told me. Houses made of strange stone, taller than trees... and caves and tunnels underground...“ She shivered. „I had bad dreams about it afterwards. How she can go back there, I don’t know.“

Virdon scooped up some turnips, trying to hide his excitement. Those were ruins of a big city, from the girl’s description. He _had_ to have a look himself! „It’s hard to imagine if you’ve never been there, I think,“ he said casually. „I’d like to see those strange things for myself...“

The woman’s look was dark. „I wouldn’t go there if you gave me a new cow,“ she said. „A lot of people went to have a look in the olden days, and none returned. It’s a cursed land, a cursed place, and one day it’ll swallow up my Delia, just like in my dreams.“

„Listen to the woman, Al,“ Burke murmured into his bowl, „this isn’t a good idea.“

Virdon fell silent and concentrated on his meal. It was clear that the woman was too frightened to tell him anything more, but perhaps her daughter would be more forthcoming.

He just hoped she’d be back before they had to leave.

* * *

The sun was pounding down on Urko's head, but there was no thought of taking off his helmet, or taking shelter in the shadow of the trees. A soldier of Urko’s army didn’t bow to anyone but his commanding officer, and Urko, chief of said army, didn’t bow to anyone. Not to Zaius - though he technically ought to -, and not to nature’s trials, either. Especially not to them.

They had made good progress this morning, traveling northwards at high speed, changing horses at every waystation. Urko was taking his gray as near horse when he wasn’t riding it - it was right to grant it respites, but he wasn’t leaving it behind. It was too valuable to leave it in the hands of some human groom.

Ever since Aken’s report had landed on his desk, Urko had felt that old rush of excitement coursing anew through his veins. The time and location of his prey’s reappearance indicated that they had been hiding for quite some time in the area; they must’ve had help.

Well, they’d be having some interesting conversations later. Urko was looking forward to that.

Officially, he was on an inspection tour of his troops through the Northern districts, since Zaius had called off the manhunt, the old fool. Now they were _inspecting_ the human settlements along the Forbidden Zone, and so far, every village in a thirty mile corridor along the border had yielded results. The humans knew his name and needed little convincing - most of the time, a glare was sufficient, though one or two had needed his hand around their throats.

Only one had defied him even then. In the end, though, he had talked like all the others.

The group was traveling inside the Zone, only leaving it for provision runs. It was pretty smart, Urko had to give it to them. On the other hand, it was making their next surface point quite predictable, which was why they were racing North instead of waiting out the midday heat like any sane ape. If they could overtake them now, they could enjoy the shade of a tree in the next village and wait for the fugitives to run into their open arms like hares into a net...

He halted his horse when he saw the cart creeping down the road towards them.

A human was steering it, and the village they were headed to was just about five miles ahead of them, so it had to be coming from there. Urko smiled and rode up to the creature, that had by now stopped its cart, too, and was eyeing them uncertainly. Its expression turned fearful when Urko’s men fanned out and casually encircled it.

„Where’re you going?“ Urko demanded to know.

„Jus’ taking the dung out to the fields, master,“ the human said meekly. It didn’t dare to meet Urko’s eyes. The general wrinkled his nose. The cart did stink. He’d thought it was the human.

Better make it quick, then.

„You’re from that village five miles up?“

„Yes, master.“

„Had any visitors there lately?“

Now the human looked up at him, wide-eyed. It shook his head. Urko leaned forward from his horse and the human shrank back immediately.

„Better think again, and think harder, because we’re on our way to your little crap-hole, and if we find some humans that don’t belong there, I’ll remember you.“

„I don’t know... master, perhaps there were people visiting... but I left an hour ago, I don’t know if they even stayed...“ It yelped when Urko’s gloved hand shot forth and grabbed it by its collar.

„So why did you at first say there weren’t any strangers in your village?“ Urko kept his tone friendly. The human was shaking like a leaf in his grip.

„I, I didn’t remember at first... I thought harder, like you said... please...“ Its eyes began to water. Urko growled and shoved it back on its ass. The human crumpled with a sob, to the laughter of his men.

„Humans!“ Urko spat. „Liars, all of them! You have to beat the truth out of them with a stick! Remember that,“ he turned to his lieutenant. „Always assume that a human is lying. You’re lucky that I don’t have time for that right now,“ he said to the human that still cowered on its seat in an almost fetal position. Maybe it had shat its pants; it was hard to tell over the general stench of the cart. Urko spurred his horse on to get to the lee side of it.

„So they have guests in town. We better hurry up, then - I don’t want to miss the party.“

They fell into a sharp gallop.

* * *

Zana picked at the white, glassy chunks in her bowl and pretended to eat one; hopefully nobody noticed how the cabbage-y smell was turning her stomach. She had hoped for some fruit and nuts, or some fresh vegetables... she could die for tomatoes lately - but no such luck. She glanced around the table to see if the vigorous movements of her fork on the plate were successfully fooling Galen and the humans.

Peet was completely focused on his bowl, perhaps even on his second serving already. Zana shook her head - that human could eat like a... very hungry animal. Though she shouldn’t compare him to an animal. Alan was eating slowly, his gaze flicking to the door again and again. Apparently he was waiting for the humans’ daughter to return. Zana stuffed a turnip into her mouth and forced herself to chew on it. If she wanted to leave before that girl returned, she’d better empty her plate. She didn’t want to give Alan the chance to get sidetracked.

She froze momentarily when her gaze locked with Galen; her fiancé had been watching her. Well, her mouth was filled with those terrible turnips right now, so he couldn’t say anything, could he? Zana smiled and chewed demonstratively. Galen just turned up one corner of his mouth, but still looked worried. Well, he was prone to fussing over her; she just had to make clear that it was the heat that was making her sluggish and irritated. Later, when they were alone.

Her hopes were dashed when Delia entered a moment later, a tall, lanky girl of about twelve with sunburned cheeks and a tousled ponytail. She carried a cloth bag whose boxy shape announced that the fearless explorer had brought back plenty of booty.

„You’re late for noonday meal,“ her mother scolded her, perfectly hiding her relief behind a mask of disapproval. Zana saw the light in the girl’s eyes dull for a moment; but then Delia noticed the strangers around the family table, and they lit up again with fascination. Children...

„What’s in your bag?“ Virdon asked with real interest, and Delia came around to his place. Virdon pushed his plate aside and the girl began to lay out her treasures. Zana smiled; Alan loved children - Peet thought it was because he was missing his own son so much that he somehow saw him in every little human they encountered - and the children responded to him immediately. Perhaps they felt that his affection and interest were genuine.

„Delia, take that away, it’s dirty! We have food on the table!“ Her mother eyed the admittedly dusty artefacts with disgust and... fear?

„You can show me the rest of it over there.“ Virdon pointed to a sideboard at the wall behind him and helped her to carry the exhibits over to it. They put their heads together over them like two seasoned archaeologists. Zana sighed and returned to her battle with the turnips. So much for getting in and out quickly, before anyone suspected they were here...

„Pete, look at this!“

Peet looked up from his bowl with an expression on his face that said he’d rather not look at whatever had caught his friend’s attention; Zana knew that he wanted to get back inside the Forbidden Zone as quickly as possible. When it came to apes, Peet’s paranoia was even greater than her own.

„Looks like junk,“ he said unenthusiastically. Virdon came over to him with something that looked like a necklace made of various colored strings.

„Those are electric wires!“ Virdon’s voice was strained, his face and shoulders tense. He was trying to contain a great excitement. Zana gave up pretending that she was eating her stew and followed the humans’ interaction with interest. She couldn’t help it; she was still a human behavioral analyst, even if the institute didn’t send her a paycheck anymore.

Peet leaned back in his chair and rubbed his upper lip. His whole body indicated aversion.

„Yeah, it’s wiring alright,“ he agreed. „But it’s still useless junk, I mean, look at it, Al. Look at all of it.“ He waved his hand towards Delia’s collection on the sideboard. „It’s just like the stuff Gres had collected in that bunker of his. Centuries old, corroded, melted, molding, or just... broken. It doesn’t _do_ anything. It’s just... it’s pot shards and arrowheads.“ He looked up at Alan, and his face softened.

„That stuff won’t help you to get home, Al - you gotta face reality here.“

Alan had begun to shake his head halfway through Peet’s little speech. Zana suppressed a sigh. Alan could be stubborn like... Peet had likened him to a mule. And sensible as Peet’s objections were, in the end he’d give in, as always. Zana found the internal hierarchy between her two humans fascinating, but for once she wished Peet would assert himself as the leader. Maybe she should advise him to wrestle Alan to the ground or whatever adult humans did to rearrange the ranks. Wrestling had been the method of choice among the human young she had been working with.

„Even if the technology that Gres had collected was damaged, you would’ve been able to repair it,“ Alan was arguing. „Yes, it may all be junk in that city, but we can’t know until we’ve had a look ourselves. And if they did have computers...“

Peet leaned forward with a huff. „Jeez, Al, I was exchanging the fused wiring of that gun, that’s a whole other dimension than fixing a computer! And then you’d need a power source and oh right I’ll go with you, you won’t budge anyway! God!“ He buried his face in his hands for a moment. When he lifted his head, he wore a resigned expression. „Someone has to make sure you don’t get yourself killed by getting yourself into stupid shit.“

Alan smiled gratefully and gave him a playful slap on the shoulder. „I appreciate that.“

„Oh fuck off, Al,“ Peet murmured, though Zana supposed it was meant as an endearment, despite the choice of language.

„I’d like to go with you, if that is all right.“

Zana turned to Galen, as surprised as the humans. „What do you want there, Galen?“ Was Alan’s obsession infectious? Galen’s nose twitched, as it always did when he was nervous... or excited.

„Oh, I, I just want to see one of those mythical cities myself. They are said to be remnants of an advanced ape civilisation,“ he added towards the humans, „but since they are all located inside the Forbidden Zones, our archeologists have never gotten a permit to go there for excavations.“ He shook his head in regret. „Such a shame, really - to have the truth within reach, and no means to touch it.“

Zana leaned over and hissed into his ear: „It’s that cursed book of yours, isn’t it!“

Galen just turned his head towards her and smiled slightly, but didn’t answer. Zana had noticed that he only took it out when he thought the humans were asleep or busy, and although Peet had lately shown interest in it, Galen’s demeanour had so far discouraged him from actually asking anything about it, or its content. Zana wasn’t surprised that her fiancé didn’t want to talk about it right now, either, but Mothers, could she really let him join the humans on such a crazy mission without resistance?

„Does that mean you’re leaving me behind here, to somehow barter for our food with nothing more than my scarf and Alan’s funny needle?“ she asked sternly.

Peet grinned. „Well, if you sell it as a ‘funny’ needle, you might even get some takers.“

Alan had a guilty look on his face, but he didn’t make any sign of calling off his quest. Zana threw her arms up in frustration. „All right, go, all of you, I’ll take care of the actual reason we came here! Just don’t take all day, you know we... still have quite a distance to travel today.“

The others nodded - everyone had understood what she hadn’t said outright. Alan’s fear that Urko might yet again be on their tail had unsettled them all, and driven them to march long and hard day after day.

What an irony that it was Alan, of all people, who was now costing them precious time.

* * *

The humans scattered like frightened chickens when his squad broke into their midst. Urko waved his men to herd them together on the village square and took a deep draw from his water bottle while they set to work. He didn’t want to address the critters more than once, and besides, being encircled by apes on horseback had a taming effect on a human herd. They instinctively huddled together and paid attention.

„It’s been brought to my attention that this village harboured wanted criminals not long ago,“ he began abruptly, „or, who knows, is maybe still harbouring them. Now I’ll grant you that you didn’t know that they’re wanted by the government, but legally, that wouldn’t make a difference.“

He leaned on his saddle horn and smiled. „I could still burn your burrows down and hang your carcasses in the trees and nobody would care.“ Except for the local prefect, perhaps - and Urko would have to convince Zaius to pay reparations for the loss of workers. He really didn’t need that hassle, but there was no reason to let the humans know that, who were muttering fearfully among themselves. He straightened in the saddle.

„But. I’m in a good mood today. If you tell me, right now, where they are, I’ll spare you. As I said, you didn’t know what you invited in, and of course there were two apes among them, and you’re right to obey any ape. So...“ he let his horse walk around the crowd, scanning the faces for signs of a confession wish, „who wants to save their village today? I’m sure your fellow humans will throw a feast for you afterwards, in gratitude for saving their lives.“

The creatures were averting their eyes, whether out of fear or defiance he couldn’t say. Well. It would’ve been boring without a little struggle. He waved for his men, and two of them jumped from their horses and grabbed a boy under both arms. The human whipped its head around with wide eyes. From somewhere in the crowd came a strangled cry. Ah yes, family. The strongest bond, right?

„I don’t know about you, but I think it’s an awfully hot day,“ Urko said conversationally. „And I think we all need a bit of refreshment. One can think better, and remember better, with a cool head.“ He nodded to his soldiers, and they dragged the human over to a water barrel. The youngster threw itself back in their grip and dug its heels into the dust, but of course a human was no match for simian strength. They reached the barrel and dunked its head under water.

„I’m a bit short of time,“ Urko told the horrified onlookers while the prisoner kicked and struggled behind him, „otherwise I’d have shown you how a _proper_ interrogation works. This,“ he gestured over his shoulder, „is crude, I know. I apologize. But it’s often effective.“ At his sign, his men let the human surface; Urko waited until the coughs and sobs, and the retching, had subsided a bit.

„Well?“ he asked mildly.

„I don’t know! I don’t know!“ the boy yelled, panicked. Urko nodded, and his men hoisted it up again. „No, no...“ the rest of its screams was drowned, literally.

Urko clucked his tongue. „He should’ve tried to hold his breath instead of wasting it on lies.“

„He doesn’t know! He was out in the fields all morning! Please...“ An old woman pushed her way through the crowd towards him and fell on the ground before his horse. Urko curled his lip in disgust. Why they let these beasts live on once they were no longer productive was beyond him. They were a drain on resources, something ape society was eternally struggling with. The food that the old nag consumed should go to an ape child instead.

„I can’t imagine that _you_ ’ve been out in the fields all morning, too,“ he scoffed, „so perhaps you’ll tell me who gave shelter to my fugitives, before my men forget to let your relative up for air?“

The human hesitated, and Urko suppressed the urge to laugh. Here his lieutenant was drowning its son, or grandson, in a barrel like a kitten, and it still needed time to deliberate?

„Better hurry up,“ he grinned, „your boy has stopped kicking.“

The woman still said nothing, but her gaze flicked to a hut on the other side of the square. Urko followed it with his eyes. „That one, huh?“

He waved his men to follow him; they dropped the boy to the ground like a wet rag. The old hag hurried over to him and threw himself over his still body. Urko gave them no heed and steered his horse over to the hut.

„One to guard the back, the others are with me. Leave no pot unturned while I have a chat with the residents.“

* * *

Her breasts hurt as they were squeezed against the earth beneath the floorboards, and the dust was tickling her nose, but Zana found it horribly easy to lie absolutely still in that tiny hiding place, while heavy boots were creaking back and forth above her, and pots were crashing on the ground. If she had counted right, there were three soldiers in the room above her, one of them Urko. The sound of his voice was the main reason she had no problems to stay frozen like a doll. The few inches of wood between her and him meant that she was currently safe from his eyes, but unfortunately, they did nothing to muffle the conversation.

„They aren’t here.“ That was Leon’s voice, surprisingly calm, considering he had Urko in his hut. He must’ve heard of him - the general’s reputation was preceding him, especially among the humans. Zana didn’t know if she should admire his courage or fear for his life. Perhaps both.

„So they’ve _been_ here, then.“ That was Urko, equally calm. You could think the two were discussing the weather.

„Many pass through the village.“ Zana thought she could even hear the shrug in Leon’s voice.

Urko snorted. „Through this remote craphole? I really doubt that. So where did they go?“

„I have no idea. They didn’t talk much.“ Well, that was the truth - it was mostly Alan who had done the talking, and he’d had only one topic of interest.

„You’re lying.“ Urko’s voice had taken on a new quality - soft, conversational, deceptively casual. Zana could feel every hair on her body rise.

„Humans are always lying, until you put the screws on them. Lovely daughter you have there. Is she your only young?“

„Leave her out of this, please.“ Leon’s voice was still calm, but Zana could hear the tension in it. She was sure that Urko heard it, too, and reveled in the man’s fear.

„I always said that the average ape tends to underestimate humans,“ Urko mused. „They think of them as cattle, which is how we use them, alright. But I think a more apt comparison is... a rat. Smart, cunning, social _vermin_. The only disadvantage you humans have compared to rats is that you drop fewer offspring. That’s what makes them so dear to you, am I right, little one?“

Zana heard the girl yelp, and Urko chuckle. „If your mate here would birth a litter of eight, I doubt you’d even give them names. What’s your name, girl?“

„D... Delia.“

„Lovely name. Now, Delia, you’re still young, and healthy, and you have a great life before you, toiling in the fields and popping out even more humans to populate our land, and I bet you want to enjoy all those things in your future. Do you want to have a future, Delia? Then I suggest you convince your father that he should start talking to me _right now.“_ Urko’s voice had turned to steel with the last words.

„They went for the ruins in the Blasted Zone,“ Asa cried out. Zana closed her eyes; she couldn’t fault the woman for wanting to protect her child... she could only hope that Urko was so keen on them that he wouldn’t waste time with retaliating against the family for holding back that information for so long.

„All of them?“

Zana held her breath.

„All of them,“ Leon confirmed in a shaky voice. „They were eager to go back into the Zone, because they thought nobody would dare to follow them there.“

„Very well.“ Zana could hear someone topple a chair - had Urko shoved the girl aside? The floorboards creaked as Urko took two steps away from where she lay hidden.

„You’re lucky that I’m in a bit of a hurry right now - but don’t think I’ll neglect my duty to discipline you for lying. I’ll make sure to stop by on my way back and put the cane on... no, not on you.“

Zana heard someone whimper. What had Urko done? Was that Delia’s voice?

„On her. That’ll teach you not to defy your masters. And it’ll teach that cub of yours, too - seems you can’t be trusted to raise her right, so I’ll have to.“

The heavy steps moved to the door.

„And if she doesn’t survive it, you can always squeeze out another one.“


	2. Chapter 2

Virdon couldn’t say when he had become aware that they were already inside the ruins. He only realized that they had already crossed the city’s perimeter when the shape of the hills became unnaturally high and steep, the short valleys between them crossing and connecting in the pattern of a vaguely familiar labyrinth. Nature had long ago covered everything with a fur of grass and trees; dark holes in the side of the hills might have been doors once, but the archways led to walls of soil, as the wind had filled up the cavities behind them centuries ago. In the distance, strange silhouettes stretched against the sky: overgrown steel skeletons that had lost their concrete flesh and acquired spikes and feathers made of vines and little trees.

An eerie silence was hovering around them, one that was born not from the absence of sound, but from the weight of time pressing down on them. This had been a city once, bustling with life - perhaps not quite like one of their cities back home, if what Galen had said about a former ape civilisation was true, but still similar enough to make him shiver.

„I feel as if I’m walking over the grave of a king,“ he murmured.

„The king under the hill, huh?“ Burke kept his voice equally low. Galen just gave them a curious sideways look.

The silence between them deepened as they advanced further into the remnants of what had been a city once, and Virdon could feel the pressure mount - the expectation of the others that he’d admit it aloud.

The ground began to sway again, and Galen staggered for a moment before he regained his balance.

„We’re pushing our luck here, Al,“ Pete said under his breath. It was the closest he’d come to telling him off. With every other subject, his friend had no problem to be blunt, but Pete knew that getting home to Chris and Sally was a sore point for him...

„You were right,“ Virdon said dejectedly. „We won’t find anything useful here. I was hoping...“

„Yeah,“ Pete surveyed the greenery choking the structures underneath. „Didn’t wanna say it, but so was I.“ He gave him a slap on the shoulder. „C’mon Al, let’s go back to Zana - she wasn’t so happy with our little field trip anyway.“

„I would have liked to see the actual ruins,“ Galen remarked as they turned back. „The official doctrine says that these cities are witnesses of a simian high civilization that was destroyed centuries ago by roaming human hordes... I’m just quoting the orthodoxy here,“ he added at their frowns. „I neither endorsed nor rejected these claims.“ He looked around. „But I was hoping to be able to form my own opinion about them here. Well, perhaps another time. Apparently, there are several such cities...“ He paused and tilted his head, listening for something.

„What is i...“ Virdon fell silent when Galen held up a hand. His head was turning slowly, trying to catch again what he had just picked up on before. The men exchanged a look, and Pete shook his head slightly: he hadn’t heard anything, either.

Still, they were straining their ears for unusual sounds now, too.

* * *

Zana waited until the hoofbeats had died down in the distance before she climbed out of her hiding hole.

The interior of the hut was wrecked. Not that the humans had claimed much as their possessions anyway, but what little they’d had was now overturned, broken, or spilled on the ground. Delia stood huddled against her mother, who had wrapped her arms around her so tightly that it wasn’t clear who was seeking consolation from whom.

_And all because of us._

„I’m so very sorry, Leon,“ Zana said. „If we had suspected that Urko was that close behind us, we’d never have come near your village! Your hospitality didn’t serve you well.“

Leon nodded; he was pale. „No, ma’am, don’t mention it, it’s nothing... I’m sorry that we gave you away, but... your friends have a greater chance to escape or fight them in the ruins than either you or we would’ve had.“

„And if they’re lucky, a house falls on them in the city,“ Delia piped up. „I hate those apes,“ she murmured - and then shot a frightened glance to Zana, who smiled reassuringly at her.

„I can understand that you don’t like Urko after how he treated you,“ she said. Delia shrugged and bent to pick up her treasures that had found their way to the floor like the rest of Leon’s possessions, avoiding eye contact with her.

Well. That was a problem that she didn’t have the time to address now. Zana turned to Leon. „I have to go. I need to try and warn my friends before they stumble upon Urko and his men.“ She grabbed Galen’s backpack - fortunately, the humans had taken theirs with them, but Galen had wanted to keep The Book safe - and made for the door. Delia’s description had been easy to remember; the question wasn’t if she would find the city, but if she’d find Galen and the humans before Urko did. If only she wasn’t so tired all the time now...

She hesitated in the door.

„Leon, I hate to ask this from you... but I need to reach the city before Urko and his men do - and they are on horseback. If there is a shortcut that a traveller on foot can use, but a horse cannot, Delia needs to show it to me. Is there such a way?“ She asked the girl directly, and Delia, clearly intimidated by her intensity, nodded.

Zana inhaled with a hiss. She didn’t like what she was about to ask, didn’t like it at all, but she had no choice. „You have to come with me, Delia. I need you as a guide.“

Leon stepped between them, his fists clenched - not in fury, but desperation, Zana hoped. His face was tense. „Please, ma’am, I can’t let her go with you. It’s too dangerous! The ground is shaking so often, she could get hurt by the falling rocks...“

„You said she goes there often on her own,“ Zana pointed out. „It didn’t seem to be a problem a mere hour ago.“

„The place is cursed!“ Asa hissed. She drew her daughter closer against her chest. „I never allow her to go there, she just slips away, and I won’t allow her to go now!“

Leon raised his hands. „Please understand, we don’t want your friends to get captured.“ He moistened his lips. „But if they do capture you, and Delia is with you, she is doomed. They will kill her on the spot, or...“ His gaze flicked to his daughter, and for a moment, he seemed to be uncertain. Then he plunged on. „Depending on their mood, it could take a long time for her to die. Urko... Urko hates humans. M-more than usual.“ The last words came in a low voice, almost inaudible, and Zana’s heart ached for him.

„I promise you, he’ll never know that she was with me,“ she said. „I’ll send her home as soon as we reach the city. And we won’t meet them on our path - we’ll take one the horses can’t go, remember? Besides, if Urko doesn’t find us in the city, he’ll be too busy searching for us to come back and deliver that caning he threatened her with!“

But Leon didn’t take the bait. „If he doesn’t find you, then he’ll want someone to work off his anger on,“ he said darkly. „He’ll beat her even worse.“

The girl wouldn’t survive a beating from Urko in either scenario. Zana shook her head. „You need to hide her from him. You all need to hide.“

Leon shrugged helplessly. „If we all hide, Urko will punish someone else instead of us; if we hide Delia, he will punish another child in her place. This is how it’s done: all are accountable for the misdeeds of one.“

Zana stared at him. „So you... you’ll just hand her over to him?“

The human closed his eyes, utterly defeated. „We have to bear whatever the general decides.“

And what choice did they have? For a moment, Zana felt as if a hand closed around her ribs and took her breath away; felt the trap these people were caught in, from the moment they were born, with no way out... no horizon, no beyond.

And then she thought of Galen. And Alan. And Peet. Wandering through the ruins, unaware of the shadow closing in on them.

She did have a choice.

„You also have to bear whatever _I_ decide, _atoro.“ Human_ , in the form that apes used to address a servant, a slave. Not the neutral _andoro_ she usually chose to refer to them.

Leon froze for a moment at her change of address; her change of demeanor.

Then his face went slack; all tension - all _hope,_ Zana realized - left his body. Asa didn’t give up that easily, though. She clung even harder to Delia, so much so that the child began to squirm in her grip.

Zana dropped the backpack; everyone in the room flinched. It made her feel shaky and sticky and awkward, but she couldn’t drop her role now. She had to be the ape they feared. The sickening thing was that she didn’t even have to work hard at it, it had been beaten into them so thoroughly.

She took the two steps to Asa and stared her down. „You let go of that cub and give it to me, _atoro.“_

Asa just stared back, out of defiance, or frozen terror, Zana couldn’t say. She only knew that she couldn’t ease off now. She couldn’t afford to make idle threats that she couldn’t - or wouldn’t - follow through, but she also couldn’t return to appeasement. She had to be tough. She _needed_ that girl.

She grabbed Delia’s arm, and the girl whimpered. Asa’s eyes shone with tears, but she didn’t dare to protest when Zana slowly pulled her daughter out of her arms. She held Zana’s gaze, and Zana found she was unable to break it. The silent plea in it broke her heart.

Suddenly, Zana was acutely aware that she was with child - that she would be a mother one day, too. If someone would tear her baby from her arms...

But nobody would dare to do that. Because she belonged to the master race.

She felt dirty.

„I won’t...“ _Harm her. Endanger her. Take her from your arms._ „I won’t take her into the ruins. I’ll send her home as soon as I can.“

The humans just stared at her with dull eyes. Mute. Dumb.

Zana grabbed her backpack and fled, their child in tow.

* * *

If Urko felt any unease at moving inside the Wasteland, he was careful not to let it show; his men were tense enough already, strangling their horses with too-tight reins, adding their jerking heads and dancing hooves to the general nervousness. Urko supposed the Lawgiver had had a good reason to set such a strict taboo on these cursed patches of land, but right now he wished that doctrine had extended only to humans; it would have made his job considerably easier. As it was, he had to split his attention between searching for tracks on the ground and keeping his fey soldiers in check, before one of them broke formation and raced back to the border as if demons hung on his horse’s tail.

It was the unnatural shapes of the landscape, he supposed, that unnerved his men so much - rationally, they knew that it was due to the old buildings hiding underneath the earth and tall grass, but the strange combination of greenery and architecture made it look like one of the otherworldly theaters that their mothers had frightened them with in their childhood if they didn’t come home before sunset, or didn’t eat up their dinner.

„Stay your horse, Olam,“ he growled under his breath, „and for the love of the Mothers, let the beast breathe, or do you want to walk back?“ The chastised soldier threw away the reins, and his horse snorted with relief and shook his head, causing the metal parts of his harness to jingle.

„Excellent, Olam, why not blow a trumpet to announce our arrival?“ his lieutenant barked at him, but before he could tear into him some more, the ground began to weave like a boat on choppy water, and everyone was busy staying in the saddle of their bucking horse.

Urko studied their faces after the ground had stopped moving - tense, grim, sullen. Time to give them something to take their minds off their childhood fears. He smiled.

„Boys, you aren’t here for nothing. I chose you because you are the most hardened, skull-busting, blood drinking sons of baboons I could find between here and Cesarea, and for such an exquisite hunting party, I have some equally exquisite prey on offer.“

„Humans,“ Dako scoffed and scratched the scar on his cheek.

„Believe me, old friend, these here are a different beast than your average human, or I wouldn’t have bothered you.“ Urko showed his teeth. „And right now, they’re hiding in this labyrinth. They’re not too far ahead of us, and I noticed these old streets intersect at regular intervals, so… Olam, Dako, take the one parallel to us on the right side, Hima, Delvan, same on the left side. One of you each, try to overtake them, close the circle, drive them back to us, the other one of your teams makes sure they don’t dive into one of those intersections and break through our little cordon.“ He turned to Nelva, his lieutenant.

„You’re with me.“

* * *

It was hard to hear something, apart from the chattering of birds and the whirring of insects in the grass and leaves - and the rushing sound of his blood in his ears. Hoofbeats would be muffled on the soft ground, and if they let their horses walk, you’d never know until they-

_„Run!“_

Galen pointed to a dark tunnel that might have been an alley eons ago, and darted away from it; in the next second, Burke could see a bobbing movement in its depths.

Rider.

He turned and dashed into another side alley, a narrow gap overgrown with shrubs and little trees. Maybe they’d slow down the horse...

His feet dug into the soft soil, it was like wading through sand. Behind him, he heard rustling and crashing as the rider broke through the underbrush. No openings to either side of him, just that long narrow funnel and he had no chance!

His hunter probably wouldn’t shoot, it was almost impossible to hit a target from a galloping horse, even if the target wasn’t moving itself, so what, trample him down? Didn’t they want them alive anymore? Perhaps better that way.

Burke stumbled over a knoll of grass, lurched, regained his footing. The crashing sounds seemed closer now, but he didn’t dare to look back; instead he scanned the overhanging branches to both sides of the street for any sign of a gap, a cave, an intersection - anything!

No such luck. This thing was a box trap, and he was rapidly reaching the end. The horse snorted; he could feel its hot breath on his back.

Burke whirled around, ducked under the grasping hand of the ape, and grabbed the rear end of the saddle skirt to push himself off. The moist heat of the horse engulfed him for a moment, the scent of sweat and leather.

Then he was free, speeding down the alley the way he had come, towards the bright patch of daylight, the broad street they had been wandering down just moments ago.

_Please don’t let his comrades wait for me there!_

He won some precious seconds before the soldier managed to turn his horse around in the narrow passage, but Burke was under no illusions that it would make any difference in the end: a human could out _last_ a horse, but not outrun it. He had to shake him off, burrow down...

... be quiet like a mouse.

* * *

Galen shot across the street towards a side alley, but veered off in the last moment, narrowly avoiding the hooves of a second rider thundering towards him from that direction. He blindly changed direction again; a gnarly vine hit him in the face and he grabbed it instinctively and catapulted himself upwards, pulling himself hand over hand far above the riders’ heads within mere moments.

A crack thundered from the walls, and wood exploded only inches from his head, slashing his cheek with needle-sharp splinters. He doubled his efforts, propelling himself towards the edge overhead. A second shot cracked, and hot pain carved a path along his upper arm.

Galen had studied medicine; he hadn’t graduated, but he knew where all the big vessels ran. This one had only grazed the outer side of his arm, but perhaps the shooter would get lucky the next time.

He vaulted over the edge, a third bullet hitting it behind him and spraying him with earth, and leaped across the little clearing that had once been a roof. Shouts rang up from behind him, then silence. Galen stilled, chest pumping, and threw a glance over his shoulder. He imagined he could hear a faint rustle. His attacker was climbing up the wall after him.

Galen broke into a run, zigzagging around thorny bushes and a patch of stinging nettles, jumped over a heap of dead branches,

... crashed through the thin layer of soil that had been covering the hole where the roof had partly collapsed. He threw himself backwards, blindly grasping for something to stop his fall; his hand closed around a young sapling, and a ripping sensation trembled through his palm as roots were torn from the soil.

But the tree held. Slowly Galen turned around until he came to lie on his belly, dug the fingers of his free hand into the soil, and began to pull himself along the ground. His legs were dangling free in the darkness hidden under the grass, and somehow he sensed a great height underneath.

He let go of the trunk for a moment, gripping it again farther down at its base. The leaves shook and rustled... announcing his position.

Galen ground his teeth and pushed against the soil once more. His knee caught on the edge, but he didn’t dare to put weight on it yet. If he broke off another batch of soil now, the momentum might throw him into the abyss. He continued to pull himself upwards, sliding on his belly like a worm. He couldn’t hear or see his attacker now; for the moment, he was out of that ape’s line of sight, too, but _he_ couldn’t avoid making noise.

His legs were out of the hole now, his knee on level with the little sapling that had saved his life. Galen pulled his knees under him and came up into a crouch. His arm burned where the bullet had shorn off the skin, and his sleeve was wet from blood. He’d leave a trail of bloodstains for his pursuer - the soldier didn’t have to hurry; he just had to get into position. His fur rose at that thought.

Galen circled back around the patch of nettles, keeping in a low crouch, using the knuckles of his hands to support himself in that bent stance, and to disperse his weight more evenly; he moved without a sound now. He went as far back towards the edge of the roof as he dared, then changed direction again, deliberately rubbing his injured arm against the trunks and shrubs along his path.

He slipped between the nettles, ignoring the few stings that penetrated his fur, and peeked through the stalks. He had to have overtaken the other at some point; now he just had to wait until the soldier had followed his trail.

While his breath began to calm down, the dizziness grew stronger; Galen knew that he hadn’t lost enough blood for that, far from it - it had to be his body’s reaction to the whole situation, the chase and the danger and the pain... the reality of being on the run for his life. Until now, the whole thing had been more like a scavenger hunt, his little stint in Aken’s prison cell notwithstanding.

Movement in the underbrush. Indistinct - no, not his imagination. Galen’s heart began to race and his mouth went dry. Just another moment... any moment now...

He almost missed his opportunity, almost broke out of his hideout a moment too late. His hunter charged after him immediately, his breath loud in the silence. He didn’t shoot, although Galen was crossing the clearing now, all he had to do was to stop and take aim, but instead the soldier sped up, and Galen stumbled and then lunged, a huge, desperate jump over a pile of dead wood...

... vaulting upward and gripping the branch of the pine tree leaning over the cave-in.

Beneath him, Urko’s soldier crashed through the treasonous ground like a wrecking ball, too surprised to make a sound. Galen stared into the silent blackness under his feet; there was no way to know if the man was dead, or deadly injured, and no way to reach him, even if he’d had the time. Galen was mildly surprised that he felt the urge to help a man who had been so intent on killing him, and that he felt guilty at having lured him into a deadly trap himself.

_I... I can’t think about that right now. I need to find Alan and Peet._

He swayed back and forth, building momentum before he let go of the branch and leaped back to the point where he had jumped off. He hesitated for a moment, unsure where to go.

Then he began to jog back into the direction where they had started their flight, staying to the rooftops.

* * *

Burke threw himself into the bright light half expecting to collide with another rider, but the street lay deserted, the rest of the hunting party off to catch Galen or Al. He sprinted across the street towards another side alley, wary after his narrow escape just now, but he needed to get as many corners between himself and his hunter as possible.

A shot was fired, but the projectile went wide and lodged somewhere in the artificial hills - impossible to tell where, with the soil dampening the impact. Burke turned a corner, accelerated, turned right again, he was now parallel to what he was beginning to think of as main street, headed towards the city limit. If he could find another side alley before the ape behind him turned the latest corner, shake him off...

Another rider emerged from a side alley ahead of him, cutting him off. Burke skidded to a halt, veered sharply to the left, into the middle of the street, he had already run circles around a horse just now, he could do it again-

The rider raised his rifle. His horse was standing still now, and Burke was just a few yards away. He wouldn’t miss.

Behind him, Burke could hear the slow clop of the second horse. Nobody was in a hurry anymore. He stood there, bolted to the ground by the rifle pointed to his chest, trying to catch his breath and find a way out of this.

Leather creaked as the ape behind him dismounted. Burke threw a quick glance over his shoulder and saw him walking towards him with a rope in his hands. So they wanted them as prisoners, which explained why they hadn’t shot them on sight before. He swallowed, a watery weakness spreading in his chest. He remembered Urko putting his knife to Al in that yard back in the capital.

Fuck this... he’d never get out of Urko’s hands alive anyway... the only choice left to him right now was a quick bullet or a slow skinning...

_I’d really have liked to go home._

He lunged to the side, and the ground came up to him with a sickening lurch, hitting his knees and sending shockwaves through his palms up to his shoulders. A horse cried, a shot cracked; a deep, grinding noise spurred him to his feet again. The hill-houses were shaking off their trees, and their balconies, and part of their rooftops, vomiting streams of soil from their doors and windows.

A slab of grass-covered concrete bored itself into the ground behind him, and Burke staggered away, past the rearing horse, narrowly avoiding a collision as the panicked beast took flight in the same direction. He had no idea what had happened to its rider. The ground was still bucking under his feet, making him stumble and weave as if he was drunk. He turned into another alley, fighting his nausea, trying to stay away from the walls that were still throwing parts of themselves at him.

He needed to stay ahead of all of them now, the apes and the city itself.

* * *

Galen landed on the edge of the roof with a faint gasp; this was the second gap he had jumped over, and his legs were beginning to wobble. A third jump might turn out too short, in which case he’d make a long jump _down_. He flicked a quick glance behind him. Well, the building had lost its upper levels an indeterminate time ago, so perhaps he’d even survive that fall. Galen’s nose twitched. He wasn’t keen on finding out.

The sharp crack of a gunshot made him duck instinctively behind the crumbling wall that surrounded the flat top of the building like a battlement. It was difficult to determine where it had come from - the walls broke the sound, and their plant cover muffled it. Galen crossed the roof, keeping his head below the height of the ruined wall, and cautiously peered over the edge down onto the street where the whole disaster had started moments ago. He couldn’t detect the shooter, but when he turned his head to the left, he inhaled sharply at what he saw.

Urko was riding up the street in a light canter, dragging something - someone - behind him. Galen’s nostrils flared when he recognized Alan... caught with a lasso like a calf; he’d been swept off his feet by the horse’s speed, and with his arms pinned to his sides by the rope, he was unable to buffer himself against the ground razing the skin off his back.

„You lice-infested son of a monkey,“ Galen murmured.

Below him, Urko brought his horse to a halt and turned it around; he began to wind up the rope, palm to elbow, pulling Alan towards him. The human swiveled around on his back to face him and dug his heels into the ground. It didn’t slow Urko down - human strength was no match against any ape, least of all a gorilla.

Galen quickly surveyed his hiding place... he had to try _something_ to help Alan! He grabbed a piece of the strange, ragged stone that made up the walls of these buildings and peered across the street to gauge the distance. If he could hit the horse’s nose, it would rear in pain and surprise, no matter how well it was trained, and the rope might slacken for a moment...

The floor swam up under his belly like a raft riding on a huge wave. Galen dropped the stone and dug his hands into the ground. Tremors shuddered up the building and through his bones. On the street, Urko’s horse reared and bucked, throwing him off, but its feet tangled in the reins and it stumbled towards the buildings. Alan had struggled to his knees and was now frantically trying to free himself from the lasso, but the rope was still tight around his body. Urko lay still, stunned by his fall. Galen hoped his head had been knocked hard enough to give Alan the time he needed to get away from him.

Another quake lurched him sideways and made him gag, and the street below gaped open like a hungry beast, swallowing Alan in one swift gulp. Galen stared as Urko’s body began to slide towards the yawning blackness, dragged into the hole by the weight of Alan’s body; the rope was still wound around the general’s arm. No, Alan wouldn’t escape him.

Nor would Urko escape Alan.

The entire front of the building next to the hole was suddenly tilting, as if the house itself wanted to have a look. Galen swallowed bile as the wall leaned leisurely forward, then broke off with a sudden shudder and covered the hole with a muffled thud.

They were... gone. Both gone.

To his surprise, Galen felt a pain in his chest that made it hard to take a breath. He had always mentally referred to Alan and Peet as „Zana’s humans,“ but over the last weeks, they had slowly lost their human-ness, and become... just people. Just Peet and Alan.

And now Alan was dead.

_How am I going to tell Zana?_


	3. Chapter 3

The ground had stilled again, but Burke knew it was a treacherous calm - in the last half-hour, they’d had almost constant tremors and now that bigger one... Could be aftershocks, but that didn’t mean they were harmless.

Well, it had knocked out one of the apes, at least, so perhaps he should send a thank-you note to Al’s god later. The other one he had no idea about, but he had dismounted, so his horse had probably run away, too. It was nothing more than a breather, so Burke kept moving.

Something slammed down on the ground only inches away from him and he reacted instinctively, his hand shooting forward and grabbing the ape by the throat, throwing him against the wall, his other arm reaching back for momentum, fist ready to crush the attacker’s windpipe-

_„Peet!“_

Burke’s palm hit the wall beside Galen’s face, propping him up as his knees began to wobble. His other hand fisted the fabric of Galen’s robe. He closed his eyes and swallowed down his nausea. „Never... never ever rush up on me like that again. I could’ve killed you.“ He took a deep breath, trying to regain his balance.

„You were about to run into the arms of one of Urko’s men out there,“ Galen murmured, his voice a bit unsteady.

„Still. I’d never forgive myself. And neither would Zana.“

„I didn’t want to have to tell her that I lost both of you out here,“ Galen whispered.

Burke lifted his head to stare at him. The chimp’s eyes were dark and mournful. Burke’s heart skipped a beat, then took off in a gallop. „Wha... what do you mean?“

Galen’s hands were grasping his arms, as if the ape feared he could break down any moment. „I just saw how Alan fell into a hole when the ground suddenly opened up... and then a house fell on the opening.“ He shook his head. „I’m so sorry, Peet. I know he was your friend...“

Burke was still breathing deeply, steadily... no, fuck that, he was hyperventilating. He bent forward, hands on his knees, trying to calm down. A hole in the road. A fucking _hole in the road._ It had to be a joke. That had been the same earthquake that had knocked out his pursuers. So Al’s god had decided to save him, an atheist, and choke Al, who was one of his servants... faithful... whatevers?

„You asshole,“ Burke murmured. „Not you,“ he added towards Galen.

„We... we need to leave before Urko’s men have regrouped,“ the chimp urged. „Luckily, Urko was pulled into that hole, too, so it may take them a bit longer... Urko had caught Alan with a lasso, and was still roped to him,“ he explained at Burke’s stare.

 _So Al is in that hole with_ Urko _? Why not add pits of lava and a guy with a fork while you’re at it?_

Burke blinked. Now that was a new thought… „He could still be alive!“

Galen shook his head. „When that gap closed, they must have been crunched.“

Burke grabbed his shoulders. „But what if not? You said a wall fell on it, like, like a lid! They could still be alive underneath, they’d just be trapped!“

„And how are you going to get them out?“ Galen asked. „The whole house fell, and we still have Urko’s men milling about!“

„I’ll think of something.“

* * *

Peet had crept towards the corner of the house and was now peering out into the street. Galen hung back for a moment, undecided; he couldn’t see how they’d be able to help Alan, provided he was really still alive... but he didn’t want to come back alone, either. He couldn’t even begin to imagine Zana’s reaction.

So he took a deep breath and tiptoed after the human, who was still crouched down at the corner, his whole body tense and alert. Galen wondered how apes were able to liken humans to cattle - this one here had the air of a predator. It made him wary to come too close.

Peet had felt him approaching, apparently, because he slightly turned his head and waved him to come up to him. Galen complied and cautiously stuck his head out.

A Chimp was trying to catch Urko’s grey that managed to evade him again and again despite being hobbled by the reins around his legs. Galen couldn’t see the soldier’s own horse - he had probably lost it during the quake. The Chimp finally succeeded in grabbing the reins and tied the animal to an uprooted tree that had fallen from a rooftop in that quake. Then he proceeded to scan the ground for tracks, searching for his commander.

He stopped with a jolt when he came to the slab of wall covering the gap. Galen wondered what he could have discovered - the falling rubble and the shock wave from the falling plate would have erased all drag marks on the ground. The soldier bent down and picked up something. Urko’s helmet.

The man’s gaze alternated between his commander’s helmet and the massive lid covering a hole... that he had no idea was there. Galen realized with a start that to this man, it was entirely reasonable to assume his commander had been crushed like a bug. Perhaps they would call off the hunt now...

„So this is the wall?“ Burke whispered. „I had thought it had broken up into a pile of rocks... smaller pieces I could crawl between... but this is one big slab of concrete! Damn!“

„We’ll never be able to lift it,“ Galen whispered back. „It’s hopeless, Peet - let’s get back before that lieutenant remembers why he’s here in the first place.“

Peet turned his head and looked up to him. His eyes were dark, the pupils wide with emotion. „I won’t hold it against you if you go back to Zana, pal - you’re her fiancé, you gotta protect her if you two wanna survive this whole fucked-up situation.“ His whisper was fierce and sharp.

„But I’ll get Al out or die trying.“

* * *

He couldn’t have been unconscious for more than a few seconds when the pain woke him; his whole back was on fire. Virdon could feel his shirt sticking to it from neck to waistline, with dust and gravel caked into his raw flesh. The fabric itself had to be in shreds. Urko hadn’t run him fast or far enough to kill, but he had inflicted enough damage that Virdon now ran a considerable risk of infection.

He sat up with a groan and felt the rope still cutting into his arms, but the tension on it was gone. He remembered falling, and now he was sitting in darkness; perhaps the rope had snapped? Virdon struggled with the noose, finally getting it over his head. Then he half crawled, half slid down the slope of gravel and dust to where a pale light came down from above. Perhaps he could escape this cave through the gaps in the ceiling where that light was stabbing through, before the next quake closed the ground around him like a giant fist.

That hope died as soon as he had reached ground level. The gaps were too small for him to fit through, even if he’d been able to reach them. They were not only too far above him, but the walls were too smooth to climb, either.

The walls were strange. In the faint, gray light, Virdon could see that this wasn’t a natural formation - this was an underground structure, made from the same kind of concrete as the buildings above. He turned his head: he was standing in a tunnel, on an elevated platform, with some sort of channel running alongside and vanishing into the darkness...

It was a subway tunnel. Virdon’s heartbeat picked up at that realization. Apes using the subway? His mind reeled at the image. With a pounding heart, he scanned the wall behind him.

The plaster... or uppermost layer of the wall above the slope he had just slid down had partially fallen off and shattered on the ground, but he could still make out some shapes between the gaps. Virdon took a step back and strained his eyes. Even after the symbols had coalesced into recognizable shapes in the dim light, he blinked and squinted until his eyes watered.

On the wall above him were letters. Letters _he could read._

... P ... N ... E

Latin script. Not ape script, that Pete derisively had dubbed „paw prints.“ Latin script, born in the Roman Empire, carried forward through the centuries first by the church, later by scholars and merchants. The script of Western civilization.

His foot caught on some sticky sheet, half-buried in the dust. Virdon swallowed and bent down to pick it up. It felt like plastic when he shook off the dust and wiped over it with the heel of his palm.

He didn’t want to read it.

It was a flyer for the Atlanta Summer Olympics of 2096.

Virdon didn’t read the small print below the title; he just read and reread those few words, and the date.

He had known that this was Earth since the first night after their crash, when he had looked up at the night sky, and had seen the Moon and the constellations. But after their capture, when the ‘remote crash site’ theory had exploded in their faces, and they had suddenly found themselves in a bizarre, upside-down fun house (or as Pete put it, freak show) version of their home, the only way to make sense of what was happening to them had been a parallel universe, some dark mirror variation of Earth, where apes had evolved as the dominant species, and relegated humans to the status of Neanderthals, minus the extinction.

Somewhere behind him, gravel slid down with a faint click.

But the athletes in that flyer were humans. Happy, tech-savvy, late 21st century humans.

The _Icarus_ had jumped through a wormhole, a space _time_ distortion... it was far more plausible that they had jumped into another time instead of another universe.

But neither he nor Pete had wanted to even touch that thought, the possibility that mankind’s reign over Earth could ever come to an end. They, like everyone else back home, had seen man expand his dominion to space, travel to the stars, discover and subdue new worlds... spread their wings and reach the heavens.

Like Icarus had done. And like him, they had fallen back to Earth, their wings burnt and broken, struck down for their hybris and negligence and-

Something grabbed him by the neck, whirled him around and flung him into the wall. White lights exploded in Virdon’s vision as his skull connected with the concrete, and his sinuses began to tingle. Blood ran hot from his nose and over his chin.

Urko’s gloved hand closed like a vise around his throat.

„Shh, I got you,“ he said softly, and tightened his grip. „And we’ll be going nice and slow...“

* * *

The heat had become suffocating, sucking the moisture from the ground and saturating the air with it. Clouds were beginning to bank up, bulging and darkening with every passing moment. They would have a thunderstorm later, Zana thought, as she glanced up into the sky; but right now, the air was heavy and charged, and clinging to her fur like a wet rag. It was difficult to breathe; her heart was beating rapidly, trying to pump her hot blood into the periphery to cool it, but in truth, she needed to sit down in the shade and fan herself - and pant; unlike humans, who had shed their fur eons ago, apes had problems getting rid of their body heat in this weather. What she _shouldn’t_ do was to jog through the wilderness to overtake people on horseback.

Though right now, she was focused on keeping up with Delia.

The human child was hurrying ahead of her, seemingly oblivious of her - or maybe trying to inconspicuously outrun her. Until now, the girl had been silent and obedient, terrified by both Urko’s and her own displays of power; but Zana began to suspect that Delia had since caught on to the fact that a human could easily outpace an ape if said ape wasn’t riding a horse.

Maybe she wasn’t even leading her in the right direction. If the cub decided to suddenly break into a sprint, Zana would be totally lost in this wilderness, without any idea in which direction to turn to either get back to the village, or to the ruins of the city.

„Delia... Delia!“ She even lacked the breath to shout. Zana stopped, fought the urge to pant, and forced her aching lungs to fill up with the choking mist. Then she hurled the last - and only - weapon in her repertoire after the girl.

_„Atoro! Stop right there!“_

The child stumbled to a halt as if shot; she didn’t turn around, just stood where she had stopped, shoulders rounded as if she was expecting a blow.

Zana slowly limped towards her. „What are you racing ahead like that?“ she scolded, still out of breath. „Don’t pretend you didn’t hear me call your name!“

Delia didn’t answer, nor did she turn her head to look at her; she was simply awaiting her next orders, prepared to obey them to the letter, while trying to defy the spirit of them as much as possible. Zana guessed it was that form of human rebellion that had earned them the mistaken moniker of being ‘dumb.’ In fact, it was a pretty sophisticated kind of silent warfare.

She didn’t want to be at war with Delia.

„Come, let’s sit down for a few moments,“ she said, and pointed to the trunk of a fallen tree that lay in the shadow of a sycamore. She went ahead without waiting to see if the girl would follow; that would only betray her insecurity, and _that_ would only foster more rebellion, and Zana didn’t want to let carelessness throw her into a situation where she’d have to forcefully assert herself. She didn’t want simple obedience from Delia, born from terror and intimidation. She wanted _compliance,_ a willing bending of the girl’s will to her own.

She sat down with a sigh that was only partly owed to the weather; most of it was a mixture of surprise and disgust at herself, at how easy it was for her to think of that human beside her only in terms of training and domination.

It felt wrong. But it couldn’t be helped now.

„I need to catch my breath for a moment,“ she told Delia, trying for a light tone, „this weather is awful. I wish I could sweat like you.“ Apes did sweat, just not as efficiently as humans; it was one reason they were tolerated by the apes. You could still work a human when an ape would have already broken down from heatstroke.

Delia still said nothing; she had sat down when Zana had patted the trunk beside her, but she sat straight erect, hands folded on her knees, staring down at them. She had bony knees, Zana noticed. The whole girl was thin and gangly like a foal. She wondered if she didn’t get enough to eat, or if it was just one of those growth spurts that young animals went through when they were at the cusp of puberty.

„Why do you keep going to that city when your parents are so frightened by it?“ Zana asked - Delia _had_ to answer a direct question, and she was fiercely determined to get her to talk.

The girl shrugged, then flicked her a frightened glance: this sort of non-answer wasn’t tolerated by the apes. Zana waited, keeping her expression neutral.

„It’s just so interesting there,“ Delia finally murmured.

Zana laughed. „You sound like my fiancé. He went with Alan because he found the ruins _so_ _interesting_ , too. - Alan is the one who admired your treasures,“ she added; maybe the mention of another human would prompt Delia to open up a bit. „He was very impressed by your collection.“

The girl still kept her gaze downcast, but a proud little smile tugged at her lips. „He liked the necklace I made.“

„That’s true,“ Zana confirmed. „He even showed it to his friend. If they had stayed a bit longer, you could have told him more about what else you’ve found in that city. I’m sure Alan would’ve loved to learn everything he could about your adventures.“

Delia squirmed a bit at so much praise, but didn’t protest; Zana suspected that Alan had been the first adult to ever show interest in the girl’s artefacts. „Maybe you two can talk some more when we find them,“ she lied.

„What’s the name of the other one?“ Delia asked shyly. Zana raised her brows; Peet hadn’t interacted at all with her - he didn’t care much for children and tended to mostly ignore them.

„His friend? Peet.“

Delia’s lips moved as she tried to formulate a question she apparently didn’t really dare to ask aloud. Finally, she managed to squeeze out, „He didn’t call you ‘missus’...“

„No, he didn’t,“ Zana confirmed.

Another moment of struggle. „Why not?“

Zana rubbed her palms over her knees. _This may be hard to believe for you, after how I just treated you, girl._ „Because he’s not my servant. He’s my friend, and so is Alan.“

Delia mulled a bit over that revelation; Zana kicked off her shoes to lose some body heat over her naked soles, and tried not to think about the amount of time she was wasting with her poor attempt at taming this little human; she had to think of it as time _gained_ that she wouldn’t stumble around in the wilderness, chasing after a slave who was determined to shake her off and leave her to her own devices.

Finally, the girl lifted her head and stared at her, brow knitted in deep thought. „What do you have to do to become a friend for a Chimpanzee?“

 _You have to find one who is crazy enough to see you as people instead of animals._ That wasn’t strictly true - Zana had known some apes who had held humans as pets... at least as long as they were young enough to be regarded as cute. That never seemed to last through puberty, for some reason. At that point, they were quickly sold off. It was a poor substitute for the kind of friendship Delia was yearning for now, and Zana’s heart ached for her. But being confined to her remote village, even her chances of becoming some bored ape’s pet were close to nonexistent.

„I don’t know,“ she confessed. „I can only speak for myself. Alan and Peet didn’t have to do anything - I just liked them. Humans are people to me, just like apes are people, and... you can only be friends... _real_ friends... with other people.“ She let that settle a bit. „You and me could be friends, too.“

Delia looked up at her with wide eyes, and Zana tried not to squirm, but there was no judgment in the child’s eyes - it was her own conscience that was hurling _hypocrite!_ against her. She ignored the burning in her chest and ploughed on. „I’d like to hear more about your adventures in that city, too! Galen thinks that apes lived there, a long time ago.“ She bent down to retrieve her shoes; Delia seemed to be comfortable enough around her now that she hopefully wouldn’t dash off again.

The girl hopped off the trunk and waited for her to finish, knotting her fingers in obvious excitement. „I’ve gone there again and again since I was little, but I never found something that looked as if it had belonged to an ape, ma’am.“

Zana straightened with a little moan and gestured for her to take up the lead again. This time, Delia stayed at her side, arms swinging, unloading every little detail she remembered from her numerous trips to the forbidden city. She kept her voice low, and Zana at once admired her caution and grieved it, because it could only mean that the child had already had some unpleasant encounters with apes honing in on her voice when it sounded outside the allowed perimeter of her village.

Zana listened with half an ear to her stories, making encouraging little noises and asking some questions here and there. According to Delia, the city had been built above as well as below ground, something that apes didn’t do - the only settlement with an underground structure was the City itself, and those were only sewers; but _this_ city had tunnels that crisscrossed under the streets in a network of what seemed to be roads - Delia claimed that she had even found strange wagons down there. Zana couldn’t imagine what they might have been for. When she asked Delia, the girl shrugged. „Maybe they were shortcuts when you wanted to get somewhere really quickly?“

A shortcut! Zana felt her fur bristle with excitement. In the next moment, though, her hope deflated again - a shortcut to _where?_ She had no idea where her friends might be in the city, so she had no destination to aim for. But when she told Delia, the girl vigorously shook her head.

„From the village, they must’ve taken the main road, from the East. There’s a tunnel that goes there in a straight line, and there are openings where you can get to the surface again. When you climb up, you can look up and down the road and see them.“ She paused. „Do I have to go with you?“

Zana looked down at her, surprised. From her tales, Delia hadn’t sounded as if she was afraid of the city. „No, of course not. I promised your parents that we part company, and you’ll go home. Don’t worry, you won’t run into Urko there-“

„It’s not... the tunnels are creepy,“ Delia whispered, and Zana felt a shiver run down her arms. She wasn’t keen on crawling into the ground, either. It was unnatural.

„And dangerous, I imagine,“ she said. „With the earth shaking so often, how can they even still exist, after all this time?“

Delia crunched her nose. „They’re made out of some strange stuff. It’s not stone - I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen it anywhere else. They are collapsed at some points, but mostly they are open.“ She peered up at Zana. „Do you want me to show you the one I told you about?“

Zana hesitated. The reluctance she felt at the mere thought of wandering into the black mouth of that construction bordered on fear; but at the same time, she was almost beyond hope that she’d be able to overtake Urko and his hunting party. She had lost too much time quarreling first with Delia’s parents, then with the girl herself, and her constant exhaustion was slowing her down on top of that.

She’d be too late. If she was really unlucky, she would arrive just in time to witness her friends’ capture and death. Zana didn’t believe for a moment that Urko would take any of them back to the City alive.

And what would become of her, then? With a sudden chill, she realized that she had no idea where to go or how to survive if she were on her own. She felt utterly lost; lonely like a leaf shaken from its branch, tumbling down, and down.

„Yes, show me that tunnel,“ she said, and adjusted the strap of Galen’s bag.

If she couldn’t escape with him, she could still die by his side.

* * *

„If I die, you’ll die, too.“

Virdon didn’t know if Urko had heard the actual words or just an inarticulate gurgle, but he didn’t have the air to try again. The edges of his vision were already beginning to blacken as the terrible pressure around his throat increased more and more.

And then eased all of a sudden. Urko’s hand was still gripping him just below the jaw, light enough to let him draw in air in shuddering gulps, but tight enough to cut him off from oxygen if he made the tiniest move to break free - like a cat putting a playful paw on a mouse’s back.

„Are you hoping for poetic justice, Alan? That the white demons will carry me away?“ The deep, gravelly voice sounded amused.

Virdon coughed, tried to swallow. His throat hurt. „We’re trapped in here, Urko,“ he said hoarsely, „but only one of us knows this place well enough to find a way out.“ God, he hoped so. In the half-light, Urko’s hulking, not quite human shape made him feel as if he was bargaining with the devil.

„I don’t need you - I can dig myself out of here just fine,“ Urko said calmly. His thumb stroked Virdon’s throat as if he was looking for the jugular. „But before I do that, I’ll take my sweet time to carve you up. I’d have taken your scalp as a souvenir, but you had to ruin it with that weed. Did you think I wouldn’t find you if you changed the color?“ He snorted. „Did your Chimp friends tell you that I’m one of the dumb Gorillas, the ones who can’t find their own arse if an Orangutan doesn’t show them where to put their hands?“

His grip had tightened around Virdon’s throat with those last words, and Virdon desperately shook his head. „We never underestimated you, General,“ he choked out, „but this is a _subway station,“_ he used the English words. „You can’t dig yourself through _concrete,_ and the hole we fell through has been filled up with rocks and rubble. You need me to get out of here! We have to work together!“

Urko actually turned his head to survey their surroundings and Virdon waited, fierce hope lancing through his gut. The gorilla straightened a bit, taking in the strange, unnatural shapes of the cave, registering for the first time that he might indeed have landed in an environment that he wasn’t familiar with. When his gaze returned to Virdon though, he saw nothing but contempt in the dark face.

„I don’t _work together_ with humans. Humans are slaves. They work _for_ me... except they don’t, because I kill them.“ He neared his face to Virdon’s and smiled. „You can feel honored, Alan - you’re the first human ever that is allowed to work for me. Just don’t expect me to spare your life for your effort afterwards.“ He let go and took a step back. „So - lead the way. Since you know how to get out of here.“

His tone made it clear that he didn’t believe any of it. It was just a variation of his game, Virdon realized - make him trip up, make him fail, accuse him of lying and kill him for it.

He licked his lips and tasted blood.


	4. Chapter 4

„Why are you still here? I told you to go back to the village and take care of Zana.“ Peet wasn’t looking at him; he was staring out at the street, observing the lieutenant who still hovered at the blocked hole.

„I want to see what solution you’ll come up with,“ Galen murmured, and that earned him a sharp glance from the human. He knew he sounded callous, but it was easier to admit curiosity than caring, especially when he wasn’t so sure himself why he was still hovering at Peet’s shoulder.

Galen remembered how Peet and Alan had worked for Polar, „as if he owned them,“ as the old farmer had said. They had endured the fate of slaves, with the exception of the beatings, all so that the Gorilla would hide him until his ankle had healed. Galen had told himself that they hadn’t done it for his sake, but Zana’s, who had never made a secret of her affection for them - a feeling that was obviously returned.

Still - it had been his ankle, not Zana's, and he couldn’t help but feel indebted to them. „And I want to help you,“ he added belatedly, and that earned him another glance, a surprised one this time.

„Okay then,“ Peet muttered, „I’ll let you know as soon as I...“ he broke off, his body tensing in silent alert. From the street came the sound of hoofbeats. Two horses.

„How many of those fucking monkeys _are_ there?“ Peet hissed.

They were coming from opposite directions, meeting where the lieutenant stood, and exchanging a few words with him, their voices too low to understand what was said. After a moment, they turned their horses and rode off again, perhaps looking for their missing comrades _(and good luck finding the one I trapped,_ Galen thought with a sudden bout of nausea), or the lieutenant’s horse that must’ve run away during the quake.

„That lieutenant doesn’t look as if he’s going away anytime soon,“ Galen remarked, „and I’ve racked my brain, but I still see no way to lift that rock over the entrance. Even an ape isn’t strong enough for that.“

„No, maybe not,“ Peet murmured absently. „I have an idea.“

„You do?“ Galen didn’t know whether to be excited or alarmed. „What idea?“

Peet turned his head and smiled at him, and Galen firmly settled on 'alarmed'.

„We turn ourselves in.“

Before Galen could say anything, the human had stepped out into the street, hands raised in the universal gesture of surrender. Galen saw Peet’s shoulders rise and fall as he took a deep breath; then he began to walk slowly towards the ape, who was looking at him over the barrel of his gun.

„Crazy, suicidal, hairless _idiot!“_ Galen cursed.

Then he raised his arms and followed the human out into the street.

* * *

„Let me... get an overview of this particular _station_ first,“ Virdon said. „Even you must admit that I can’t have been here before.“

Urko shrugged and smiled, and turned up his palm as if to say ‘knock yourself out’. They both knew that right now - trapped, injured, and unarmed - Virdon was completely at his mercy. There was no need to hurry.

Virdon forced another swallow down his swollen throat and turned away as if to search for an exit; actually, he needed a moment to think, and he found that the sight of the gorilla made that impossible. He had to- he didn’t want to follow the tunnel if he could help it, there was no light in there at all, and no way to determine if it wasn’t filled with debris a mile in, and he had to keep Urko in good mood and _interested,_ because if he got bored, the ape would find ways to entertain himself, ways that would leave him bleeding and writhing in the dust...

„Look,“ he said and bent down to pick up the flyer that he had let slip when Urko assaulted him, „I bet you never saw a material like this here.“ He handed it to the ape. „That’s _plastic._ It’s practically indestructible - it can last thousands of years.“ And who’d have thought that he might be grateful for that one day?

Urko took the smooth sheet, intrigued despite himself, and pulled it through his fingers. „What kind of script is that?“ he muttered. Virdon hesitated.

„It’s a human script,“ he said. „This was a human city once. That flyer announced a... a sports event. A competition between humans from all over the world.“

Urko looked up and snorted. „That’s a lie.“

Virdon shook his head. „I swear it’s the truth. Humans aren’t the... the pest you see them as. Once we were great...“ he was suddenly breathless. With effort, he continued, „we did great things, knew many things...“ _We are the king under the hill,_ and he felt like crying.

But he couldn’t, not here, not in front of that ape who hated him with every fiber of his being, for what, he didn’t know. Virdon turned away to find something else with which to distract his nemesis.

„Look, this here,“ his hands wiped over a part of the wall and revealed glass screens, „those were called _holographic screens._ You projected light into them, and the light would form pictures, not like photographs, but with depth, as if they were real things, just made out of light...“

„Fairy tales,“ Urko growled. „Where are those pictures now? All I see are dusty glass panels.“

„The technology has been lost,“ Virdon said sadly, „all lost... But look, over there!“ He climbed over a pile of rubble and wooden beams that had apparently been there even before the latest earthquake, and pointed towards a dark hole in the far wall.

„That may have been a café where people waited for their next train to arrive. This here was part of a whole underground transportation network, taking people from one end of the city to the other in mere moments.“

„And how would that even have been possible?“ Urko asked mildly, clearly not believing a single word of his explanations. Virdon didn’t care; all he wanted was to be able to walk around freely to scout out his surroundings, and think up a solution for his problem of escape, and keep his captor from torturing him to relieve his boredom.

„They used machines that ran in this small channel here.“ He pointed to the track bed. „Those machines were faster than horses - much faster...“ He turned his head. From the dark hole in the wall came a strange smell; too faint to identify it, but turning his stomach all the same. Not organic... he slid down the pile of rubble, eager to get away from it, and stumbled into Urko. The ape hadn’t been there a moment ago. Virdon made two steps back. Urko followed him.

„Now suppose all those stories were true,“ he said, and his light, conversational tone warned Virdon that something was gravely wrong, „that indestructible paper, those pictures made of light, that... machine that ran faster than a horse...“

He gave Virdon a sudden shove and Virdon stumbled backwards over some rock and fell on his back. The pain from the impact on his raw flesh was so great that he couldn’t even breathe. The gorilla loomed over him, his boot planted casually on his chest.

 _„If_ all those things once existed, they were thought up by _ape_ scientists, built by _ape_ engineers, operated by _ape_ technicians! Apes! Not humans! I dare you to insult me further with your filthy lies, you little rat.“ The weight on his collarbone increased as Urko leaned forward. Virdon realized that he could crush his ribcage just by leaning on it. A gorilla could weigh up to five hundred pounds. Urko wouldn’t even have to put force into it with a kick.

If he wanted to get out alive, he had to stay on Urko’s good... well, less bad side. That meant that right now, he had to grovel, much as he hated himself for it.

„I... I’m sorry, Urko, I... you’re right. Humans were never... more than slaves of the apes.“ His teeth ground at the lie. „This was yours... all yours. You made those things, eons ago. I just... wanted it to be ours, wanted... wanted to make you think... better of us.“ His hands were gripping Urko’s boot, a useless gesture. He pressed on.

„But still - I _am_ from that time. When I traveled through space... time lapsed. I can’t explain it, but I swear to God, it’s true. I do know this place, Urko, I’ve been there when it was still alive. You have to believe me!“

The boot was lifted from his chest. Virdon breathed easier for a moment. Then Urko’s face bore down on him.

„I’ve had enough of your stories. And if I find that you also lied about knowing how to get out of here, I’ll cut you up right then and there - starting with your lying tongue.“

* * *

„This is... a bit of an awkward situation.“

Burke had stopped at the other side of the hole. The chimp had observed his movements without uttering a word, keeping his rifle trained at Burke’s center.

So far, so good. Now about that making friends part of his plan... „Al’s actually better with this than me - I’m always a bit short of conversation topics when someone points a gun at me, y’know?“

The lieutenant still didn’t answer, but Burke imagined that he saw his finger twitch at the trigger. Better get to the point, then. He moistened his lips.

„But Al’s not here right now - he’s down there, with Urko. Bet they’re having an interesting conversation.“ Actually, he hoped the old bastard had gotten his head bashed in by a boulder, but knowing their luck, he was probably chasing Al through the rubble. Burke eyed the stony face of his opponent and cursed silently.

 _You’re a lieutenant - you gotta be able to think for yourself once in a while!_ He dared to move one arm to wave at the rubble between them. „Your commander is still alive, buddy! Galen here saw what happened - the ground opened during that last quake, and both Urko and my friend fell in. And then the house fell on that hole, but underneath, there’s still that hollow space.

„They’re trapped under that rock, soldier. We gotta get them out before they run out of air, or before there’s another earthquake.“

The ape didn’t even spare a glance for the slab of concrete between them. „Bullshit,“ he said flatly. „You can always assume that a human lies - saves time.“

„Yeah, right.“ _Bet that’s something you learned from Urko._ „But he’s an ape,“ Burke jerked his head towards Galen, „and he’s saying the same, so perhaps you’d better start considering it before the next rumble squeezes the juice out of your commander.“

„That rock is too heavy to lift. Even if they were alive,“ the ape’s tone made it clear that he didn’t believe it for a second, „we’d have no way to help them.“ His gun was still staring at Burke’s heart, but at least they were talking now. Progress, right?

„See, that’s where you’re wrong. I know a way how to lift that thing and get them out, and I’m even willing to share my wisdom with you.“ He forced a smile on his face. „There are conditions, of course.“

The ape snorted. „You’re in no position to set conditions.“

Burke didn’t let that faze him. „Sure I am - I have something you want.“ He pointed to his head. „Knowledge. Don’t tell me you don’t want to save General Urko.“

„The general is dead. That makes whatever knowledge you have to offer worthless. But _I_ am still under orders to bring you back to Cesarea.“ His gaze flicked between Burke and Galen. „Two out of four ain’t bad, and the third one’s accounted for. I’ll be up for a promotion.“ For the first time, an emotion moved his stony features - triumph.

_This isn’t going the way I wanted it to go._

„What if I could prove that they’re still alive?“

The chimp lightly shook his head. „How are you going to prove that?“

_Yeah, how in hell am I going to prove that?_

Burke let his gaze wander over the rubble, desperately looking for something to inspire him. Dust, rock, branch, rock, gravel, rock, metal rod... metal rod. He took a deep breath. If that rod poked all the way through the rubble...

„I’ll show you. Don’t shoot me for moving, okay?“ He slowly bent down, eyes fixed on the lieutenant, and picked up a piece of concrete. When his captor didn’t fire, he made his way over to the rod and began to bang against it.

„What are you doing?“

„This thing carries sound. When I bang against it, they’ll hear it. When they bang against it, we’ll hear it. And then you’ll hopefully listen to _me_ for a change.“

A - L - A - N - Y - O - U - O - K

Burke paused, waiting for an answer.

Nothing. He tried again.

A - L - C - O - M - E - I - N

Nothing.

„Come on, Al, bang the damn thing already.“ Behind him, the ape shifted. Burke sighed when he predictably said, „They’re dead.“

„They could just be unconscious!“ Burke snapped. „Knocked out from the fall, or have a broken leg and can’t get to the rod, there’s a million reasons they can’t answer besides ‘they’re dead’!“

„I’m not going to accept conditions from a _human_ just to secure the body of another dead human!“ the soldier spat.

„No?“ Burke said caustically. „How about securing the body of a dead gorilla? Don’t you think your general deserves a funeral with all...“

P - E - T - E

„There! You hear that?“ He whirled around to face the lieutenant and pointed to the rod. „There’s your proof! They’re alive!“

* * *

Virdon sat up and suppressed a gasp. His back felt as if it was one huge wound that had been doused with acid. Urko stood back, his hand loosening the dagger in his belt. Pete’s dagger; Urko’s trophy... or a substitute until he could collect their hides.

During his little guided tour through ancient Atlanta’s subway station, Virdon had learned that there was in fact only one exit if they didn’t want to try their luck with the tunnel, something which he categorically excluded, except as a desperate last option to escape Urko and perhaps attack him under cover of the pitch black darkness. Despite his injuries and the gorilla’s hostility, Virdon wasn’t yet ready to attempt that - it would mean that he was really standing with his back to the wall.

He limped back towards the slope and gazed up into the darkness. A tiny crack let in just enough light to show him that the rest of the opening was covered by one continuous piece of concrete - far too heavy for anyone to lift or shove aside. Virdon coughed and swallowed dust as he climbed up the slope to have a closer look. His throat was burning, and the strange smell had grown stronger; it reminded him vaguely of battery acid, but he had no idea what it really was, or where it was coming from.

„The exit is blocked, but there’s a crack running alongside it, and we may be able to widen it sufficiently to fit through,“ he reported to Urko when he had climbed down again, „but I can’t do it alone. The ground isn’t solid, with all those fragments moving against each other, and the gap is too far overhead. I know you don’t like it, but we need to cooperate here. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that smell...“

„It’s vile,“ Urko confirmed. „What is it? Another human wonder?“

Virdon shook his head. „I’ve no idea, but it can’t be healthy. We need to get out of here before it kills us, and...“ he paused at a clink behind him.

„And what?“ Urko growled, but Virdon held up a hand to silence him. He strained to listen. It was morse code. _Alan, you ok?_

Pete. Virdon swallowed, not sure if he should feel relieved. The hunting party had consisted of so many apes... was he a prisoner? He had to be.

_Al, come in!_

He scrambled up the hill and grabbed a rock to signal back.

_Pete..._

_Hurt?_

Virdon snorted and paused for a moment. Then,

_No_

_Urko?_

Virdon sighed, then morsed, _Ok._

_Urko wife name_

Virdon frowned. Why did Pete need...

„Urko, what’s the name of your wife?“

„What?“

„Your wife’s name.“

„Are you trying to play games with me?“

„No...“ Virdon felt nauseous. The smell had grown even stronger, and was vile, like Urko had said. „These hits against the rod... they’re signals. The... the intervals between them - long and short - it’s a code. I can communicate with Pete at the other end of that rod, and he wants me to signal your wife’s name, because... because your men know that neither I nor Pete can possibly know it.“ He smiled wryly. „It seems they share your opinion about human honesty.“

„Ah.“ After a pause, „Her name is Elta.“ For the first time since Virdon had met him, Urko’s voice softened.

_Elta_

Urko coughed.

_Air bad_

He hesitated, then hit the rod again.

_SOS_

His arm felt heavy and weak. He slid down the pile of rubble again.

„The others will dig from their side, but we need to do our part here. The air’s getting worse by the minute, I’m sure you’ve noticed that, too...“

Urko took a step towards the slope, but Virdon held him back.

„Wait, we need to... prop up that rock overhead, so that the ceiling doesn’t come down on our heads when we start digging.“

„I knew that,“ Urko said indignantly. Virdon went over to the smaller pile of debris near the caved in wall. The smell was originating from that hole, making him gag.

„Of course. I... I learned that from my former master.“ He pulled a half-buried timber from the rocks and dragged it over to the exit.

„I’ll start with this one, but we’d need some more... the more, the better.“ He left the indirect request hanging in the air, not daring to get more explicit. Urko would never accept orders from a human, no matter how desperate their situation.

The ape shot him an amused glance - he’d taken the hint, of course - but went to collect more beams. Virdon hefted the timber and struggled up the slope. Perhaps they’d get out of here alive, after all.

But would it make a difference?

* * *

„’k, here’s the condition: we help you to get Urko out, and in exchange, you’ll let us go.“

Burke crossed his arms and waited. He wasn’t so sure about the brilliance of his plan anymore after he had witnessed the lieutenant’s easy dismissal of Urko’s fate, but after he had proven without a doubt that the old devil was still alive and kicking down there, he hoped that his subordinate felt compelled to negotiate for his rescue.

The ape crossed his arms, too, resting his rifle in the crook of his arm; his comrades had returned in the meantime, and he obviously felt secure enough not to keep Burke in the crosshairs all the time anymore.

„No.“

„You wanna let the old man croak down there? I bet that won’t be a point in your favour when it comes to promotion.“

The ape shrugged. „He’d prefer that I let him die before I make such a deal with you.“

That was probably true. Burke tried another angle. „But he’s not here to tell you what to do, chief. You’re in charge right now, you decide. And whether he’ll like it or not, he’ll owe you his life after we’ve pulled him out.“

He didn’t get an answer immediately - that probably meant the soldier was accessing some unused parts of his brain to think this through. Burke kept silent, too - no need to disturb the man at this unfamiliar task. When there was no answer forthcoming after a minute or two, he dared to give him a little nudge, though.

„My friend told me the air is getting bad down there... we may not have all day.“

The chimp jerked a little, as if jolted out of his thoughts. „Alright. I’ll let you go if the general gets out alive.“

„Excellent.“ Burke didn’t show his relief. „Now I need...“

„I want your word on that, lieutenant,“ Galen interrupted him. His voice was cool. „On your honor, from ape to ape.“

The lieutenant showed his teeth, a smile or a snarl, Burke couldn’t tell. He cursed himself for not having realized - of course you could promise anything to a _human_ , didn’t mean you were in any way bound to it...

„You have my word.“

Galen wasn’t satisfied. „On what, exactly, do I have your word?“

The ape sighed and shifted on his feet. „You have my word that I’ll let you go - all of you,“ his gaze rested on Burke for a moment, „if the general comes out of this hole alive. Satisfied?“

„Barely. Your turn, Peet.“

„We don’t need to lift that thing,“ Burke said, „just widen that small gap there.“ He pointed. „So we’ll fasten your ropes around this part here, and let the horses do the pulling.“

The lieutenant surveyed the edge of the boulder with a frown. „The ropes will wear through and snap before that rock moves more than a hand’s breadth.“

„We just need to put something between the ropes and the rock to prevent friction.“ _Goddammit, stop nagging and get the horses lined up!_

In the end, they used the horses’ saddle cloths to shield the ropes; Galen helped Burke with tying them around the boulder, while the lieutenant commandeered his soldiers to fashion a breast harness for the horses.

„Thanks for nailing down that chimp,“ Burke murmured.

Galen frowned. „I didn’t do that - that sounds horrible!“

„Just a figure of speech.“ Well, it did sound horrible if you translated it literally. Speaking of idioms and unknown words... „What’s that Cesarea he was talking about? Where he wanted to take us?“

Galen blinked. „Oh, that’s... that’s the main city. Where the council is - and the institute where you were kept.“

Oh. That city. „Huh. Can’t remember that I’ve heard the name before.“

Galen shrugged and tightened a knot. „It’s named after Cesar, our... well, I’d call him _mythical_... founder and first ruler. But most apes never call it by its name, they just call it the capital, or ‘central city’, or just ‘the city’.“

„The Big Apple... tree?“ Burke just couldn’t help it.

Galen stared at him. „Why apples?“

„Why not?“

Galen narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Well, they had more immediate problems right now.

Burke stepped back and surveyed their work. Three horses were rigged to the slab (not Urko’s grey, he noticed - apparently, the apes’ respect extended even to the bastard’s horse), with one ape holding their reins, and the other two keeping tabs on Galen and him.

He wiped a hand over his face. Below his feet, the ground still felt restless, but maybe it was just his nerves. “Okay, gents, you’ll let the horses pull at my… at my…” He swallowed. “My owner’s sign. Don’t let them pull at it too strongly all of a sudden, or the ropes will snap.”

The apes were watching him silently; probably disapproving of him - a human - telling them what to do. Well, couldn’t be helped now. It was bad enough that he had to leave it to Galen to give the actual command. But damn, he’d call Galen ‘massah’ and kiss his ugly feet if need be.

_Whatever it takes, Al… whatever it takes._

* * *

The human was working at the exit now, propping up the boulder hanging over its head with the wooden beams Urko was handing it. It was probably deluding itself that they were now _working together,_ as if they were comrades in the same unit; Urko let it indulge in its fantasy, if it meant it’d work faster.

The way he saw it, he was no more working together with it than a farmer who was loading up a donkey with wares that he was intending to bring to the market. Urko had seen one of them break down under a load of carpets that was almost twice as high as the beast beneath; he wondered if the donkey had deluded itself about its relationship to its owner, too, or if that madness was reserved to the individual currently trapped in this hole with him. It did have some peculiar ideas, after all.

Like this cave being a human construct. Urko shook his head as he went back to the pile of rubble to retrieve another timber. The smell exuding from the hole in the wall turned his stomach, but returning to the human meant he was now engulfed in the stink of the creature’s blood and sweat. When he got out of here, he’d break with tradition and take a bath.

Seeking to get away from both odors, Urko took some steps towards the tunnel at the far end of the cave. He had piled up enough beams at the human’s feet to keep it busy for a while, and he needed a moment to be alone with his thoughts.

If he was honest with himself, the surroundings were unnerving him - they were unnatural, alien. Urko pulled the glove from one hand and gingerly touched the wall; it was so smooth that it felt almost moist to the touch. He threw a hasty glance over his shoulder, but the human was still busy, dragging another timber up the slope.

Would apes build something like this... of course, the forefathers and -mothers had been more powerful than the apes today - they could easily have built this underground cave; of that, Urko had no doubts, just like he was absolutely secure in the knowledge that humans had never been more than cowering, lying and scheming pests that didn’t deserve to be spared, not even so that they could serve the apes.

The question wasn’t if apes had once been able to build this underground tunnel. The question was why they would do such a thing. Apes weren’t burrowing down like rabbits; humans were. Apes were proud and free, living in the light and air of mighty trees (at least the ones that hadn’t degenerated yet). Even the City had once been built in the crowns of a holy grove that the great Cesar had planted for that purpose.

He bent to pick up the sheet of indestructible paper that the human had shoved into his face earlier - then, Urko had focused on the texture of the stuff, as smooth as the wall he’d just touched, but slippery and elastic... as alien as everything else down here. Now, he took a closer look at the pictures on it. There were only two: a huge, round building, higher than the trees in the foreground; and a bunch of humans in strange clothes, obviously racing against each other.

Urko stared at that second picture for a long time. Something about it made him uneasy, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. Perhaps the strange script? Urko could read, he had taught himself as a boy, but these shapes were like nothing he had ever seen before. The human had claimed it to be a human script, but everyone knew that humans weren’t evolved enough to have developed writing.

His eyes fell on another of these... _flyers,_ as the human had called them. It had thrown about a whole lot of unknown - and probably made up - words in its first bout of desperate babble. Well, it had been entertaining enough to see the frog pull one fantastic story after the other out of its ass in mere moments. Filthy liars, all of them. Urko bent to pick up the sheet, shaking it to get rid of the dust covering the pictures underneath.

It took a moment in the weak light to make sense of what he saw. The first thing jumping out to him was a Gorilla, proud and strong, sitting on some sort of platform; he didn’t spare a glance for the humans in the foreground, but was staring directly into Urko’s eyes. His stance was regal, calm but powerful. One of the humans was holding up an offering, but it would probably be rejected, just as it should be.

Urko blinked. There was something between the ape and the fawning humans. He took a step back towards the gaps in the ceiling, where the light was better.

Bars.

The pleading smiles of the humans became jeers; the offering a projectile, to be hurled at the prisoner behind those bars. The ape was staring into his eyes, a silent accusation in his gaze. _Traitor,_ it said, _how can you tolerate that creature whose race had imprisoned your brother, treated him as if he was an animal?_

Urko turned the sheet - there were more pictures on its back, smaller ones showing animals that he’d never seen before... did they even still exist now? One thing was clear from that collection, though - that proud prince of a Gorilla had been seen, and treated, as a mere animal by the humans of that time.

The humans that had built this underground cave.

The humans that _this_ human claimed to belong to.

Urko felt the ground tremble around him and realized after a moment that it was him who was shaking. Vertigo made him seek the support of the wall, that alien thing.

The human hadn’t lied. Humans had been great once, humans... had been the masters once.

And this one over there knew it. And was running around to tell everyone, to put thoughts of lost greatness and lost dominion into the heads and hearts of his crawling, sniveling descendants.

Urko’s hand closed around the hilt of the dagger in his belt.

 _This is my world now, frog. And it will_ stay _my world._


	5. Chapter 5

„That’s it.“ Delia raised her arm and pointed.

Zana had visited some caves during her childhood - her mother had been enamoured with archeology, although she had pursued it more as an unusual hobby instead of a serious profession. Even then, Zana had been unnerved by the darkness and the feeling that they were crawling around under a mountain that resented them for stumbling into its secret chambers, and would entrap them forever in its fathomless, lightless depths for it.

But this was different. In a way, it was worse.

She stared at the gaping mouth of the tunnel that didn’t open in the side of a hill, but at her feet, like a huge sinkhole. Only _this_ sinkhole opened the view to a structure underneath the grass and bushland that was usually covering it. It made her feel as if she had been walking over a fire-spider nest hidden under the meadow, a maze of tubes filled with malevolent beings that were lying in wait for a girl with naked feet-

She shook off that memory, and the shudder of disgust accompanying it. The structure in front of her hadn’t been made by nasty insects. Zana cautiously crept closer to the edge, testing the ground with each step, and peered into the darkness that was only partially dispelled by the sunlight lancing into it.

A lot of rubble had piled up inside, partially covered by grass and saplings. This cave in was older; of course, that wasn’t a guarantee that it wouldn’t start collapsing even more with the next quake. She had to be insane to contemplate climbing down there.

„And you’ve been down there before?“ she asked the girl.

The human nodded. „That’s how I know that it ends on the big street where the mister and your humans enter the city.“

„It must be pitch black down there, once you leave this hole behind,“ Zana wondered. „Did you even see a thing down there?“

Delia hesitated, swaying a bit as if she was torn between staying where she was and taking off; then she turned around all of a sudden and sprinted towards the edge of the wood. Zana started after her, alarmed, but stopped when she saw her return.

„I used this,“ Delia said, out of breath, and held up a lantern. It was a crude thing, just a wooden frame with horn plates instead of glass windows, but Zana admired the humans’ ingenuity: the horn was scraped so thin that it was almost transparent. It would do its job, which meant she had no excuses left to linger.

She threw another glance at the shadowy lines that were barely visible in the shadows - unnaturally straight, running down the length of the tube. Unnatural - the whole place breathed something both ancient and alien.

Apes had never lived here. Zana couldn’t say how she knew, but she was absolutely certain of it.

„Do you know who built this?“ she asked Delia. „Do your people have any stories about this city, other than that it’s cursed?“

„Bad people lived there,“ Delia said. „But then Attala destroyed the city and all the bad people died.“

She should go, Zana knew - after her desperate hurry to reach Galen and the humans in time, now was the worst time to stall. But she couldn’t bring herself to climb down into that blackness, armed with nothing more than a tallow light in a wooden box. Alien things were hiding in the darkness, and she was afraid of what she would find there... or what would find her.

„Who were these people?“

Delia shrugged. „They were monsters. They had bodies like a human, but heads like birds of prey.“

Zana sighed inwardly. Trust a human to come up with a tale of fantasy when you asked them for facts. Still, she decided to probe a little further. Maybe she’d glean some insight that would prepare her for what she might find down there. „Why do you say they were bad people? What did they do?“

„They flew over the land and threw stones on people, and other stuff, and then the people died, and the crops died, too, and the water was poisoned.“ Delia frowned, trying to remember... or to invent more outrageous claims.

Then her face lit up. „But there was this girl, Attala - she lived in one of the villages that the bird-people dropped their stones on. Attala was the fastest runner in the world! When she raced by you, you didn’t even see her! You just knew because she ran so fast that she made a wind, and you’d see the leaves rustle in that wind.

„And one day, the people of her village sent Attala to the city with a sun egg, and she had to climb the highest tower of the city, and then she had to drop that egg, and then she had to run away and be outside of the city before the egg hit the ground, and nobody else could do that because nobody was as fast as Attala.“ Delia stopped to gasp for breath. Her eyes shone with excitement; she had probably put herself into Attala’s shoes, Zana thought, suppressing a smile.

„And that’s what she did,“ Delia continued. „And she was already outside the city when the egg touched the ground. And when the egg cracked open on the stones, there was a huge light, and it was so bright that you couldn’t look at it, and a huge storm - all the trees broke off, for miles and miles! And after that, all the falcon-men were dead and the people in the villages could live in peace.“

 _And then we came along,_ Zana thought. Whatever had happened here would probably never be uncovered - apes had no interest to step inside the Forbidden Zones to investigate old ruins. Only some curious human children did... and Alan.

If she put this off any longer now, she’d never stop hating herself.

„I promised your parents that I’d send you back as soon as we reached the city,“ she said. „And this is it, I think. You said I just need to follow this tunnel to its end? So you run back now, Delia, and... you hide from Urko, no matter what your father said!“

Delia’s eyes filled with sudden tears. „But then he’ll beat up someone else!“

„If Urko captures us...“ Zana’s throat went dry. „If he captures us, he’ll be in too high spirits to think of you. But if not... You can’t let him take all of you hostages. You don’t negotiate with oppressors, and you don’t play by their rules. Understood?“

Delia nodded slowly, her eyes huge. Zana doubted that she had, but there was no time to explain it to the girl in simpler words. Maybe she’d remember them when she was older - maybe she’d turn into another Katlin.

... and had she just advised a human to rebel against her own people? _I called them oppressors..._

_Because that’s what we are._

Just when had she stopped granting Alan and Peet special status, and begun to see _all_ humans as people?

* * *

„I think... I think this is as much as we can do. We should start digging... the air is getting worse. We may not have much time left.“

The human’s speech was slow and a bit slurred, and as hot as the hatred was running through his veins right now, Urko had to admit it was right - he felt slow and sluggish himself now. Strangely enough, he didn’t notice the smell as strongly as before; perhaps he was getting numb to it, or perhaps the silent poison was already clouding his senses, he didn’t know.

All he did know was that he couldn’t allow the creature to crawl out of that hole again. Let it be buried in the ruins of its forgotten greatness, a pile of bones under the fragments of its people’s civilisation. Urko’s hand wandered to the knife again.

But first, let it fulfil its divine purpose, and save the ape. Let it dig a way for him to escape, back into fresh air and daylight. He pushed the blade back into its sheath and made his way over to the slope with heavy steps. Small rocks and debris was already sliding down towards him, pooling at his feet.

Urko peered into the gray light squeezing through the crack along the biggest boulder, the one that the human had propped up with the beams. It was scratching at that gap, trying to widen it so that they would fit through. Urko frowned. The human was slimmer than him; it would be able to wiggle through long before he would be able to get out.

So he would have to kill it before that point - and that meant he had to stay close to it the whole time, enduring the sharp, acrid stink of its sweat. Urko’s nostrils flared in disgust. But he had waded through the blood and shit of screaming, dying humans before; he wouldn’t try to hold his breath, no, he’d inhale deeply, and know that he was tasting the human’s death.

He could even begin to savour it.

He climbed up to the human with a slight hum in the back of his throat, the excitement of a hunter sneaking up to his oblivious prey. The human was hacking at the edge of the gap with a sharp rock, trying to loosen soil and a curious black sediment. Urko watched it for a moment, then bent down to work at another section of the gap. Once enough soil had been removed under the black sediment, it broke off quite easily and tumbled down into the darkness below them. Urko supposed he could ask the human about the strange stuff, but he didn’t bother anymore. Let it fall into the darkness, where it belonged.

A grinding sound over their heads made them both look up in alarm. Pebbles, dust, and bigger rocks were tumbling down around them, and forced them to duck their heads and shield them with their arms as the giant plate of rock began to move sideways. The timbers used to secure it tilted, one of them popping out of its fixation with a hollow clang.

„They’re pulling it aside!“ the human cried, coughing. „You could’ve told me, Pete...“

Urko squinted against the dust - the gap was wider now, but still too narrow for either of them. But with the other human above doing all the work, he didn’t need this one anymore.

The human was still scratching away at the edge of the gap, but its movements were weak now, and slow. Urko had to fight to keep his eyes open, too... he felt drunk, the kind of drunkenness that was followed by violently throwing up in a gutter. Soon the poisonous air would overwhelm even him, and his men would find them both unconscious, and drag both of them out.

He couldn’t allow that. Zaius was much too interested in what these humans knew.

It had to be now.

* * *

The nausea was intense now; Virdon felt he’d throw up any moment. Whatever gas this was had to be lighter than air if he was still engulfed in it up here. Instead of fresh air reaching him from the gap he was struggling to widen, the foul smell seemed to stream over his face from below. So this was what people called ‘miasma’ in the old days...

He could hear Urko climbing up the slope and fought to feign obliviousness. The general made his skin crawl - of all the apes he’d encountered so far, he was the only one who seemed to hate humans in general, and Pete and him in particular, with a passion that bordered on obsession. From Zana’s words he had concluded that his hatred preceded their crash on this world (no, he had to stop thinking like this... it was the same world, the same world)-

The boulder above him began to move sideways all of a sudden, grinding against the edge of the hole it covered. Debris was raining down on him, small pebbles as well as bigger fragments of concrete, sharp-edged and big enough to knock him out. Virdon covered his head with both arms and held his breath as a cloud of dust engulfed him. Behind him, his careful support structure was splintering and breaking away. The horizontal beams that formed his working platform shook under his feet as their supporting timbers began to tilt.

 _You could’ve warned me, Pete._ He had thought Pete would be digging towards them from the other side of the crack. He should’ve known that his hot-headed friend would be too impatient for that. But then who knew what kind of pressure he was facing out there.

He had to jump down before the whole construction came crashing down around him. From now on, Pete had to do all the heavy lifting - although his plan seemed to work out...

The slab stopped, then moved with a jerk. A whole section of the wall crumbled and slid off, gravel, soil, bigger slabs of concrete rushing down, putting the whole slope into motion. Virdon fell on his side as the ground shifted away from under his feet, rocks pelting him like a particularly vicious hailstorm.

And then something heavy landed on his legs.

The hailstorm turned into a light patter of gravel while Virdon tried to wriggle free; dust was clogging his nose and made it difficult to breathe, and although he was able to roll the piece of concrete from his hip, he found that his legs were stuck in a mixture of pebbles and soil that was as effective in pinning him down as cement. He’d have to dig himself out, and that would cost precious time - and if Pete moved the slab again, he’d be unable to evade the debris...

„Al! Are you alright down there?“

Virdon looked up. The gap was wider now, wide enough to get through, and he could see Pete’s head poking over the edge. Virdon’s eyes were watering from the dust, and perhaps from that sight, too, and for a moment he forgot the precarious position he was in.

„As alright as you could expect, I guess.“ He coughed. „My legs are buried in that avalanche of yours, though - I can’t get out.“

„Shit! Sorry, Al, couldn’t avoid that. Is the general ok?“

Virdon sighed, which provoked a new cough. „Yes, he’s fine.“

„Good thing - the lieutenant here wouldn’t have been too happy if we’d pulled up a dead gorilla, if you get my drift.“

Yes, Virdon understood perfectly - if Urko had died, the lieutenant would’ve killed them in retaliation, nevermind that the earthquake hadn’t been their fault. On the other hand, as soon as Urko got out of that hole, it would be him who’d kill them.

It seemed there was no way they could win this time.

„We’ll throw you a rope and pull you up now. Hang in there, Al - just a few more minutes, and we’re good.“

 _A few more minutes, and we’re dead,_ Virdon thought. _But I’ll hang in there alright._

It wasn’t as if he had a choice in that matter.

* * *

Zana gave Delia a light pat on the shoulder. „Thank you for helping me.“ _Not that I gave you much of a choice. „_ Now off you go!“

The girl was gone in a flash, like a startled deer. Zana felt like she was looking into one of those fun mirrors they had at the carnival shows, the ones that tilted the image back and forth whenever you moved. Just like that, her impression of the humans was swinging wildly from moment to moment. Person, no, animal, no, person, no, animal. It gave her vertigo.

She forced herself to shut down those ruminations and to focus on her descent. The rubble was treacherous, and she had to test each step before she dared to put weight on her foot. When she had finally reached the bottom of the hole, she sighed with relief.

It was cool down here; shafts of sunlight just made the darkness surrounding them more palpable. The tunnel opened twin mouths ahead and behind her, and Zana had to fight the urge to look over her shoulder every other moment. She lit the lantern; the light was weak and milky, illuminating herself more than her surroundings.

When she turned around for a last look back, the patch of daylight had already vanished. Zana’s heart jumped and began a rapid drumfire against her breastbone. The tunnel must have made a slight curve, she reasoned with herself, an imperceptible bend. The opening was just obscured from her view, the ground hadnt’t closed behind her, and there were no alien ghosts haunting the depths, ready to drag her soul into some unimaginable, demonic otherworld.

Maybe she shouldn’t have prompted Delia to tell her that story immediately before coming down here. She held the lantern higher - _no, I’m not drawing ghosts towards me with it like a fisherman lures lobsters -_ and determinedly strode down the tunnel, making each step firm and fearless.

Soon the air was getting staler and warmer, and Zana found it harder to breathe. She wasn’t sure if the small sounds at the edge of her hearing were real or just tricks that her ears were playing on her because her mind couldn’t bear the complete silence. Or maybe it was just rats. Right now, rats were comfortingly mundane.

She had to focus her mind on something else but ghost stories, or before long, she’d be huddled against the wall in the darkness, too frightened to either move forwards or go back! With an angry huff, Zana stopped and slapped her free hand against her thigh. _Am I a twelve year old human, or am I a Chimpanzee scientist? Galen would give his right arm for a chance to investigate this structure, and he’ll grill me for all kinds of details, so I better make sure I have at least_ something _to satisfy his curiosity... otherwise he’ll probably insist on climbing down here himself!_

She raised the lantern high above her head and swung it around in a wide circle, trying to make note of anything unusual. The walls were unnaturally smooth; they curved up and vanished into the darkness beyond the weak halo of her lantern, presumably meeting above her head. To her left, the floor abruptly vanished into a canal of even deeper shadows. Zana cautiously knelt down at the edge and dipped the lantern into the abyss.

Two iron rods ran along the bottom of the canal, parallel to each other, for what purpose, she couldn’t even begin to imagine. Galen - and Alan, too - would’ve jumped down to investigate them more closely, but Zana felt her fur rise at the sight.

No ape had built this. Everything down here was utterly alien.

 _Who_ had made all this? Had there been... other visitors from the stars? Alan and Peet had come here with a machine; maybe other beings had come here eons ago, too? Maybe they _had_ been bird-like; clearly, Delia’s story had a kernel of truth in it, a memory of a long forgotten past, twisted and obscured by countless retellings. Maybe Zaius had been right to be alarmed at the appearance of people who were able to reach this world from beyond the sky. Superior technology in the hands of merciless aliens would seal the apes’ fate.

She crawled backwards until she was a safe distance away from the structure and resumed her walk down the tunnel, faster than before now, impatient to leave this unsettling place. She wished for a weapon; even a bat would’ve calmed her frayed nerves. If anything attacked her down here, she’d only have the little lantern to defend herself, and she doubted it would be any help, not even against a rat.

She was walking briskly, at the edge of breaking into a run, telling herself that nobody was creeping up to her; what she was hearing were the echoes of her own steps.

A massive bulk of darkness pushed out of the darkness; the circle of her light was so small that it was already looming above her when she noticed it. She jumped back and pressed herself against the curving wall, heart painfully clenching in her chest.

After an eternal moment of terror, she realized that it was inanimate. It was... a thing, another alien construct, not an animal, not a... not an alien being. Zana inhaled shakily; her heart was hammering against her ribs. It was just a thing, just a thing.

Another deep, trembling breath, and she took a step closer to it, lantern held high over her head.

It was a huge, metal... cage. No, more like a tube, with holes - with windows? She walked the length of it, then turned and walked back to its beginning. It sat on the iron rods in the canal. There was a door in its side. It was... something like a coach.

Zana slowly walked to its end again. There was a huge window at the front, and two smaller holes farther down; maybe to set lanterns in them, like the one she was carrying? Otherwise it wouldn’t have been able to see where it was going in the utter darkness. Then she remembered that it didn’t have a choice where it was going; it had to follow the canal it was set in.

She blinked; she had to stop thinking of the thing as if it was an animal; it clearly was something built by the same beings that had also dug the tunnel into the earth.

When Zana squeezed through the half-open door, she told herself that she was doing it for Galen - so she could tell him what had been inside the alien coach. Something crunched under her feet: the light of her lantern was sparkling on thousands of glass shards. All the windows were empty holes, so the panes had to have broken...

... inward?

More shards glinted from the rows of seats at both sides of the central gangway - for something that had been sitting here for eons, the place was remarkably dust-free. Zana wondered if that meant that she was now at the midpoint between her entry and the elusive exit point of the tunnel, too far away from either opening that gusts of air could transport material here and deposit it.

The seats were made of a strange, hard material that showed no signs of decomposition. Since no mention was made of this city and its inhabitants, and the Lawgiver had written down the Scrolls about seven hundred years ago, they had to be even older. Once again, Zana wondered just who had made all this... and why nobody had ever bothered to come here and dig for answers.

She raised the lantern over her head to illuminate more of the interior, and discovered something like a handrail... at the ceiling! Why in the world... what kind of creature would need a handrail up there? An image of huge fire spiders scuttling up the walls and across the ceiling flashed up in her mind, and she blinked rapidly to chase it away.

_I should go. I won’t solve this mystery today..._

Instead she wandered down the gangway, casting the weak light of her lantern against the walls, wondering about the strange markings beside the second, blocked and warped door - it looked like a foreign script, and she wished she had the time to copy the sym _bonygrinofaskull-_

Zana jerked back, feet skidding on the glassy gravel. She bumped into the hard edge of a seat and completely lost her footing. The beam of her lantern flickered over the walls as she desperately held it up over her head to save it from tumbling between the rows of seats and going out.

For a moment she just lay there, panting, heart racing. Her hip pounded with a dull ache where she had hit the seat’s edge, and the pain of a hundred fire spiders bit into her right palm. When she inspected it in the lamp light, tiny bits of glass sparkled, like diamonds in the bright red setting of her blood that was oozing from the cuts.

Zana heaved a shuddering breath. She had let the atmosphere of these old ruins unnerve her so deeply that she had jumped at the sight of a heap of bones! Whatever lay sprawled over that seat was long dead. It couldn’t harm her... she had done that to herself.

She scrambled to her feet, annoyance burning away her fear. She would _not_ let this place spook her any longer! She’d walk down this gangway, see what was there, then exit this coach... _thing,_ and resume her way to the _real_ exit, that of this damn tunnel, and-

There was more than one of them.

The rest of the seats were occupied. Zana swallowed and forced herself to lower her lantern to the nearest remains and have a closer look. The air in these tunnels was dry enough to allow a certain degree of mummification - at least as far as horn and hair was concerned. The pattern of fur distribution on these corpses told her with one glance, what a second look at their jaws and eye ridges confirmed:

All the passengers had been humans.

The patter of her heartbeat was echoed by the pulsating hum in her head. Humans... humans had been riding in this coach. _Something_ had killed them all at once, and completely unexpectedly: all of them were seated, nobody had tried to escape to the exit.

And they had been _humans!_ Delia had said the inhabitants of this city had been enemies of humans, terrorizing them with advanced weapons - so what had they been doing down here?

Maybe they had been slaves, just like they were now?

_You never catch a break, you poor creatures, do you?_

Or maybe Delia’s story had been corrupted over the centuries, and humans had been the creators of this city, this... this strange technology? The thought made her shiver.

No, she realized a moment later. Not she had trembled, but the floor under her feet. Zana spun around and stumbled back to the only usable door. If she was still in here when another quake hit... Forget about science; she had to get to the end of this shortcut as quickly as possible!

She broke into a run.


	6. Chapter 6

„He can't let us go, you know that? Urko won’t allow it.“

Burke pushed away from the edge and jogged to where Urko’s grey was tethered to the fallen tree. „I just need the rope to pull up your commander,“ he assured the ape (an ugly guy with an even uglier scar across his face) before he turned to Galen.

„He gave you his word, on his honor - he won’t want to break it. Not to an ape, anyway,“ he added, and Galen winced at the bitterness in his voice.

„He won’t like it, but he won’t defy Urko... and Urko has no qualms about breaking another man’s word if it suits him.“

Galen was right, Burke admitted to himself. This was far from over yet. But before he could worry about that, he first had to get Al out. The next quake could...

The ground began to tremble as if on cue. Burke cursed and ran back to the hole, flinging most of the rope down into the darkness.

„Wait for my signal, Al!“ he shouted, „I’ll have to hook up the horse first!“ Al’s upturned face was a white blob in the twilight, a mask of dust and blood. Way too much blood. Burke hoped his injuries were from the fall, and not from the psycho gorilla.

The ground was shaking stronger now, and new debris was raining into the hole. The horses were dancing and whinnying. Galen hurried over to them and took the reins, trying to calm them down. Burke followed him with his end of the rope, trying to decide which of them looked the least crazy. The horse closest to him was jerking its head, rolling its eyes at him, and he hesitated. His only experience with a horse so far had him left sore and walking bowlegged for two days. He had no idea how that beast would react in its panic - probably kick him.

„Good boy... or girl. Lemme just fit you with this nice, shiny rope...“

The horse was less than cooperative, dancing away from him and finally stepping on his foot. Burke cursed - his shoes weren’t much more than moccasins, fit to shield his soles from sharp pebbles, but no match for hundreds of pounds of horse concentrated in a hoof. Scar-face howled with laughter.

„Your general is down there, too!“ Burke snapped. „Think he’ll laugh with you when the quake hurls a fucking boulder at his face, just because you didn’t move your ass here to help me?“

The chimp grabbed the reins, still snorting, and kept the beast under control long enough so that Burke could fasten the rope to its harness. He was barely finished when the ground pushed with a sudden jerk against his feet, and the horse jumped in the air with all four legs at once. Burke leaped back - no need to meet the next hoof with his face.

„Ok, Al, we’re ready! Grab the rope, hurry up!“

The next quake was already here.

* * *

Virdon reached for the rope again, missing it by the breadth of a hair - again. It was maddening. He pushed against the rubble around his thighs, straining to lift himself out of it for that fraction of an inch he was short...

It was hopeless.

„Urko... help me...“

He didn’t really believe it; it was far more probable that Urko would grab that rope, let himself be pulled up, and then proceed to kill Pete and throw his dead body down into the pit to him.

Virdon looked up when he heard the gravel grind under the gorilla’s heavy boots. Urko was slowly climbing up the slope, his huge bulk only visible in the darkness because the falling dust had powdered his fur. It made him look like a vengeful ghost.

His eyes were fixed on Virdon, not the rope.

Urko stopped at the border of the wedge of daylight that was now falling into their pit, and stared at him with an unreadable expression. Uncertainty gripped Virdon. He knew the other’s look of contempt by now, of hatred, even that of pleasure and amusement while he had abused him, but this one was... meditative?

Then he saw the dagger in the ape’s hand.

Virdon’s gaze flicked up to meet Urko’s unforgiving glare.

„Why?“ Quietly; he wasn’t shocked. Just... confused. Tired. Why now, why not later, when Urko could take his sweet time, as he had promised him earlier?

To his surprise, Urko sheathed the dagger. He pulled something from the cuff of his glove, shook it out - it was a flyer, Virdon realized. The Olympics flyer? What could’ve set him off about...

It was a different flyer. One which exhorted people to come visit the zoo.

Their eyes met again over the ancient piece of advertisement, and Virdon felt his shoulders relax with relief. To not be alone with that terrible truth... even if the only other person on the planet was a being that despised him so thoroughly that it shouldn’t have been possible to deepen his hatred of humans - of him - even more.

„So now you believe me,“ he breathed.

Urko began to roll up the flyer. „I knew you were different somehow, from the first time I saw you in that cage. We thought it was because you fell from the sky, from another world.“ He stuffed the thing back into the glove. „But it doesn’t make a difference in the end. I’ll still kill you. I won’t allow you to take this-“ he waved at the darkness below him, „with you, back into my world. Because make no mistake, Alan: this is _my_ world. Apes rule now, and humans... humans will soon be only a memory. And then even that memory will fade.“

He stepped out of the shadow, the sun flashing on his blade.

The ground was clamping around Virdon’s legs, unyielding against his frantic struggle, the rope still dangling just out of his reach. He jerked his head around, desperately searching for something to shield himself against the knife.

Urko’s shadow fell over him.

* * *

The tremors that had at first only raced down the length of the tunnel like fever chills were now a constant shudder beating against Zana’s feet. She was stumbling on, one hand pushing the weak light of the lantern against the endless darkness, the other brushing against the slick, smooth surface of the wall to keep her from accidently falling into the ditch that still ran along to her left. The constant twisting and heaving of the ground made her nauseous and unsure on her feet, and there was still no sight of the opening that Delia had promised her.

Maybe there was no exit. Maybe the human had tricked her into climbing into the churning mouth of the earth, where nobody would ever find her. Even if Galen and the humans escaped Urko, they would have no idea where to even start looking for her.

She’d be buried here in the darkness forever, millennia growing over her bones.

Zana stifled a sob - she could _not_ panic now! There _would_ be an exit somewhere, if only because an underground network of streets, strange as they were, wouldn’t make sense without a connection to the surface. These tunnels had held for Mothers knew how long - they would withstand this episode, too. She was safe in here, as safe as one could be under the circumstances.

The next hit pushed her off her feet.

She fell hard on her already bruised hip, unable to cushion her fall because she was desperately raising the lantern to keep it from hitting the ground and going out. The ground was bucking against her like a horse, and kicking her ribs just as painfully.

The shudders subsided, but didn’t vanish completely. For a moment, Zana stayed where she was, fighting for breath. Her whole left side felt like one big bruise.

She struggled to her feet eventually, more out of stubbornness than conviction, and trudged on. It seemed to her that the air was getting cooler now, and not as difficult to pull into her lungs as before, but she didn’t dare to get her hopes up yet - the darkness surrounding her was as impenetrable as ever.

The next quake hurled her into the ditch. The lantern slipped from her fingers as if the darkness itself was grabbing at it and tearing it from her hands; the dim yellow glow floated away from her in a wide arch and winked out as the construct smashed on the ground somewhere above her, below her, she didn’t know. She dug her fingers into the gravel between the metal rods, clinging to the only thing existing beside her in the roaring blackness, moaning with fear, too terrified to scream.

This time, the tremors didn’t subside; _they didn’t subside,_ and she was lying here, blind and panicked and alone and... and she needed to _get up!_

Get up and get going, stumbling over gravel, falling to her knees as the next quake hit her like a giant fist, coughing from the dust that was rolling down the corridor-

Dust. Where did it come from?

Zana fumbled for her scarf, green and golden like sunlight on young leaves - she remembered what it looked like, remembered it with all her might, held onto that image in her mind, sun peeking through canopy, sky and wind and _light -_ and tied it over her mouth and nose. Then she plunged into the suffocating cloud that was breathing into her face; the tiny grains made her eyes water, but she didn’t mind, because those grains were riding on a wind that was blowing from outside, from a hole in the ground, a hole opening into the sky...

And now she could see the durst swirling in the air, a dull gray mass twisting in the darkness like a nest of snakes, betraying the light it sought to obscure: A patch of daylight hovered before her, like a trick played by tired eyes.

Zana grabbed the edge of the embankment, ignoring the sharp pain as the glass shards that were still embedded in her palm bit deeper, and hoisted herself up. She would have to climb another landslide, like the one she had descended years ago, but this pile was shaking and shivering from the tremors, spitting gravel at her like an angry llama. Small boulders were jumping down into the canal as if they were made of cotton.

Twice she slid down when the whole slope began to skid; she only managed to outrun a second landslide because she crawled up on all fours. She kept crawling even after she had climbed over the edge and had reached solid ground; it was sensible, since the quake still hadn’t stopped, but in truth it was simply because she was too panicked to think straight. Only when she reached the corner of an unnaturally cubic hill did she realize that she was still on all fours.

Then her legs gave out.

She knew this wasn’t the time to take a break, that she was in danger of being smashed by something falling on her, or being swallowed by newly opening gaps in the ground, but for a moment, she just sat there, staring uncomprehendingly at the scene unfolding before her eyes.

Across from her, on the other side of what had to be the main street Delia had spoken of, Galen and Peet were leading a pair of horses that were harnessed to a big slab of rock. They were surrounded by Urko’s men.

Captured.

The realization formed slowly, as if her mind had turned to jelly. They had been captured, and...

... what were they doing there? Where was Urko?

_And where was Alan?_

* * *

Urko loomed above him, blocking out the sun, the only thing not moving in a world that shook and trembled as if gripped by a fever. Far above him, Virdon could hear the horses scream. The big slab of concrete jerked, then slipped into the hole a bit, as one of the ropes snapped.

Urko didn’t pay attention to any of this; he was savouring his kill. Virdon saw his nostrils flare, sucking in the scent of his blood, his fear.

Heat shot up inside him, from his gut to his chest and into his arms, his head - hot, roiling rage at this creature that fancied itself to be his jury, judge and executioner, his master and his butcher. Virdon’s hand dug through the rubble around him, through gravel and sand, fingers bruising on ragged concrete and fragments of tarmac.

... finding the cold, smooth curve of the metal rod.

He yanked it up just as the blade fell down on him, blocking Urko’s arm a short distance above the wrist. If he hadn’t held the rod with both hands, at both ends, the dagger would still have found its mark; even so, the impact reverberated through him down to his hip that was still half-buried in the rubble.

Urko made a grab for the rod with his free hand, and Virdon let go of one end, using the rod as a baton to hit that hand as hard as he could. He knew how hopeless his own position was, rooted like a tree, so if he could manage to numb that limb, take it out of the equation...

... and not forget about his other arm in the meantime! He jerked his left arm down in the last possible moment and twisted his body around as much as he could, and the blade scraped along a rib instead of sliding between them and burying itself in his heart.

Virdon brought the rod up again and dashed it against Urko’s temple with a yell, putting all his strength into the blow, all his rage, all his despair, all his heartache.

The gorilla fell like a tree.

Virdon just stared at him for a moment, sucking in air, then choking at the dust that was already puffing up all around him. He felt the ground shifting, kneading his legs in a terrible, bone-crunching embrace. He coughed, a strangled, sobbing sound.

„Al! Goddammit, grab that fucking rope already! I gave you more length, now get to it!“

The rope landed at his side with a heavy slap. Still numb, Virdon grabbed it and gave it a pull to signal Pete. The rope tightened with a sudden jerk and he felt his spine was going to be ripped apart. He tensed up, clenching his teeth as the rocks scraped against his legs.

Then he was free. Urko was still out cold, lying prone in the rubble. There probably was no time to get them both out, one after the other. The ground was jerking now, the slab of concrete rotating over the edge.

„Hold that fucking horse!“

A second rope snapped with a crack, and the slab began to tilt into the hole.

With a growl, Virdon let go of his rope.

* * *

„What’s he doing? _What’s he doing?“_

Peet let go of his horse and ran to the edge of the hole, dropping on his belly to peer over the edge. Galen grabbed the reins before the spooked animal could escape. The trembling didn’t pause anymore, but right now, it didn’t get more violent, either; he hoped they would be a safe distance away from the ruins when the inevitable climax came.

Peet was waving at him to lead the horse away from the hole, not that the poor beast needed a prompt - Galen hung on to keep it from bolting, but even so, he had the impression that it had to fight more against the weight hanging on the other end of the rope than before. So Alan had jumped off to hook up Urko first.

Galen admired the human’s insistence to honor their shaky agreement, but he wasn’t sure if it was wise. The angle at which the boulder was hanging over the pit worried him. With the ground now constantly shifting and sliding, that slab could begin to move any moment, and it was too heavy for them to control it. Perhaps they wouldn’t have enough time to save the second man waiting on the ground of that trap.

He admitted to himself that he’d have preferred Urko to be that second man.

But of course it was Urko’s body who first appeared; the lieutenant hurried to drag his still body away from the edge. Galen frowned; if the general was dead...

Peet cursed and shoved the ape aside to untie the rope - he didn’t seem worried, but then he wouldn’t exactly mourn a dead Urko, either. Galen could see the terrible hurry in his jerking movements and lost no time to force the protesting horse back towards the abyss. When Peet gave the signal to pull, the horse bolted.

And the rope snapped.

Galen could only stare as Peet dove down for the severed rope that was whipping away with the weight of Alan’s body. He seemed to have caught it, because a jerk went through his whole body, and in a nightmarish repetition of what Galen had witnessed earlier, Peet was sliding towards the hole.

The lieutenant threw himself on Peet’s prone body, and his additional weight was enough to stop the human’s momentum. For a moment, both just lay there, panting. Then they began to pull in the rope, hand over hand, human and ape.

Galen shook off his paralysis and darted to the edge. Virdon’s head was just an arm’s length away now, his hair grey with dust, his upturned face bruised and bloodied. Galen plopped down and pushed his hand down to him. Virdon let go of the rope with one hand and grabbed his wrist. Behind him, the slab began to turn with an ominous crunching sound.

_„Pull!“_

The slab dove into the hole with a screwing motion as the three of them hauled Virdon up over the edge. At the fringe of Galen’s awareness, one of the soldiers was cutting the rope that still tied one horse to the giant fragment before it got pulled into the pit by it.

They all retreated from the site as far as Virdon was able to walk before he broke down, which wasn’t nearly far enough for Galen’s taste. Urko was still unconscious - probably knocked out by one of the greater fragments that the tremors had shaken loose. For the moment, the vibrations had decreased to a barely noticeable shudder, but Galen was certain that there would be many more quakes until the ground would calm down. If it ever did.

„Sweet Mothers, _Alan!“_

For a moment, Galen thought his heart had stopped; it wasn’t possible, it wasn’t... they had left her behind in the village, in safety-

He whirled around and there she was, dusty and dissheveled and with a wild look in her eyes that woke up his heart again and sent it into a frenzied race. She was clutching his leather bag to her chest. The bag with the Book in it. Galen inhaled shakily. He wanted to clutch _her_ against his chest right now, press her against his heart and never let go.

But the frozen moment dissolved, and she hurried to Alan and took a quick inventory of his wounds. The human’s shirt was torn and soaked with blood; he looked as if he’d gotten a vicious whipping. Peet hovered at her shoulder and eyed his friend's wound with a grim expression. Galen saw his gaze wander to Urko, then to the lieutenant and his men; the human visibly kept himself in check.

Galen decided that it would be best if they parted on their agreed terms before Peet's self control snapped, or the general woke up to override the lieutenant’s word. His eyes met those of the lieutenant in wordless understanding, and the other ape nodded almost imperceptibly.

Galen took one of Alan’s arms to help him up and gestured to Peet to do the same. Once they were out of the city, they’d need to find a place to hide, and care for Alan’s wounds, but right now, their first priority-

„Kill them... all of them!“

Galen forced down a roar of frustration. _Now_ the old baboon had to wake up? He half turned, Alan’s arm still draped over his shoulder, and fixed the lieutenant with a glare. „We had a bargain, remember? And we kept our side of it.“

The Chimp straightened indignantly. „Don’t _you_ talk to me about honor, outlaw!“ he growled.

„Didn’t you hear me?“ Urko had pushed himself up on one elbow; he looked dazed, and his speech was slurred. „Get your guns, soldiers!“

„No!“ The lieutenant stepped between them and the soldier who had grabbed his rifle, a brutish looking Chimp with an ugly scar on his cheek. „We honor our bargain.“

The other Chimp pointed to Urko. „The general says something else.“

„The general isn’t fit to command right now,“ the lieutenant growled. „Now put that down.“

„He just gave an order,“ the Chimp said stubbornly. „Seems fit enough to me, an’ I won’t disobey an order from General Urko.“

The lieutenant inhaled with a sharp hiss. „Fine. I’ll...“

The ground began to weave again. Farther down the street, another balcony crashed down.

„Put the general on his horse, get him out of this cursed place!“ the lieutenant barked. When the Chimps hesitated, he grabbed his rifle. „I’ll take care of the executions myself.“

They were staring at each other silently while the soldiers tied Urko to his horse. Peet was whispering with Alan, but Galen understood only every third word or so. “...has to reload manually, ... jump him between... you and Galen... distract...“ Alan was shaking his head; whatever madness Peet had thought up, it had to be something insanely suicidal.

_More suicidal than standing here and patiently waiting for our execution?_

Zana at least seemed to be eager to attack the Chimp, gun or not, so perhaps she had caught on to Peet’s daring plan. If he were the lieutenant, Galen thought resignedly, he’d probably shoot Peet first.

He had to do something.

„It seems you were right, Lieutenant,“ Galen said softly as the soldiers were leading Urko away on his horse. „I shouldn’t have spoken about honor to you.“

The soldier didn’t move a muscle, staring him down with flinty eyes. „When I catch up with my comrades, Urko will want your hides. If he doesn’t get them, he’ll want _my_ hide.“ He cleared his throat and spat. „An’ some of these baboons are eager to get my job. ‘m sorry, but I won’t stick my neck out for some animals.“ He cocked the rifle.

„You gave your word,“ Galen repeated, incredulous. How could he break his word? He was an officer of the _law!_

„If you could present satisfying proof of our deaths to the general, you’d let us go?“ Zana’s voice was hoarse, but her eyes were blazing as she stepped forward and boldly stared at the ape.

The Chimp stared back, apparently unmoved. But then he shrugged. „Maybe. It’d have to be pretty damn convincing proof. The general is sharp as a knife.“

„Yeah, _my_ knife!“ Peet muttered. Everyone ignored him.

Zana grabbed the scarf that was loosely slung around her throat. Its colors were muted, and a cloud of dust billowed up when she pulled it loose. „If you took something from each of us and gave it to him,“ she said. Then her eyes fell on Alan, leaning heavily against Peet with his eyes closed. She quickly stepped behind him; Galen couldn’t see what she was doing, but Alan jerked up and opened his eyes.

„I’m sorry, Alan,“ Zana said and rounded him; the scarf in her hands was dark with his blood. She offered it to the Chimp. „Does this look ‘pretty damn convincing’? It’s a lot of blood on a woman’s scarf - I’m quite sure he wouldn’t suspect that it belonged to _you.“_

Galen held his breath at her cheek; but after a moment, the Chimp took it. Zana whirled around. „Great! We need something from you, Galen, and from them-“

„The general will ask me why I didn’t bring the bodies with me,“ the Chimp interrupted her. Galen could see her eyes narrow, before she plastered a friendly smile on her face and turned to face their captor once again.

„Look - what’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘you’.“

The Chimp scratched his chin and regarded her with an expression that made Galen’s blood boil. „Name’s Nelva, but you can call me ‘sir’.“

„I think I can’t,“ Zana said with the same frozen smile. „So, Nelva, it’s a bit _lively_ here right now-“

The ground trembled as if to agree. Everyone stumbled a bit before regaining their footing. Behind them, Nelva’s horse whinnied and jerked its head up. Zana pointed at it. „So getting four dead, heavy, limp bodies on your spooked horse proved to be impractical, and you... you...“ Her searching gaze fell on the hole that had almost swallowed Alan for good, „You threw the bodies into that hole. As a, a sort of gesture. Toward the general.“

Nelva frowned. „What gesture? And the hole is closed!“

Zana flapped her hands. „Poetic justice, you did it in his honor because he came out victorious, but his enemies didn’t, _Mothers,_ think of something! And the ground is moving so much here, who’s to say that hole didn’t open up again? Do you think he’ll come back and have a look?“

Nelva stared at her. Then he snorted - apparently he liked spunky women. Galen ground his teeth and told himself that Zana was bargaining for all their lives right now. If she had to flirt with an ugly old officer - so be it!

„You’re cutting off my bloodflow,“ Alan murmured at his ear. „I may need that hand in the future...“ His voice was even more hoarse than Zana’s, a wheezing whisper, but Galen thought he could hear wry amusement in it.

Nelva raised his gun, and everyone froze.

Then he pointed it to the sky and fired. Reloaded and fired again into the sky. Again. And a last time.

Galen flinched at every shot. He couldn’t help it. His ears were ringing, and his knees... his knees were wobbling a bit. The lieutenant smiled. Well, a corner of his mouth twitched. Galen doubted that his amusement was good-natured.

„Go quickly. When I see you again, there’ll be no bargain.“

„ _If_ you see us again.“

The lieutenant shook his head, and this time, his smile was visible. „Oh, I’m absolutely sure I’ll see you again.“ He pressed Zana’s bloodied scarf against his chest and bowed to her in mock regard. „The general was right - you really are a clever and elusive game.

„Don’t think we’ll ever stop hunting you.“

* * *

„I’m sorry...“

„I know you’re as careful as possible, Zana - you don’t have to apologize every time I flinch,“ Virdon said. „I’m beginning to feel guilty for not having greater self control...“

„Oh no, no such nonsense,“ Zana said briskly. „You have every reason to flinch, and moan, and curse, and throw things against the walls...“

„If we had walls,“ Pete interjected from his pine. He was leaning against the trunk, chewing on a slice of old bread that Zana had actually wanted to use for soup. Virdon saw her scowl at his friend, but then she resumed spreading ointment on his back. He flinched.

„I’m s... nevermind.“

They were still inside the Forbidden Zone, although it had lost its illusion of safety now; Urko had broken one of the most powerful taboos of his world, and survived it. Worse, he hadn’t been alone. If the Forbidden Zones had been sanctuaries for strays such as Katlin, they now no longer existed. Virdon couldn’t help but feel responsible.

He still felt weak, and a bit feverish, but except for coughing up tons of dust (and alright, maybe it was a bit purulent, but he hadn’t gotten pneumonia... he hoped) and having to sleep on his belly, he’d gotten away surprisingly well. Zana had traded his compass for that foul-smelling, stinging ointment that kept infection at bay. It was the same thing apes used on their slaves after whipping. Slaves were expensive - you took care that they didn’t die from a bit of discipline.

Perhaps that was what made him flinch every time.

„What do we do now?“ Zana asked with a little sigh, as if she’d read his thoughts.

„Hurry up, I would say,“ Galen answered for him. „We still have to go North if we want to get out of Urko’s sphere of influence, so there’s really nothing else we can do.“

„You heard the guy,“ Pete muttered. „He’ll never stop hunting us, even if we’re outside of his ‘sphere’. Urko is our very own damn Ahab.“

„Ahab died in the end,“ Virdon said lightly.

Pete wasn’t convinced. „Yeah, but so did the whale.“

„That’s not confirmed...“

Zana gave him a little cuff upside the head. „Stop talking in riddles, you two - it’s rude.“

Virdon smiled. „Sorry, ma’am.“

„You’re hitting a weak, injured human,“ Pete cried out in mock anguish, „You cruel, unfeeling ape!“

„Well, you’re right,“ Zana retorted, „I should hit you instead, you are strong and healthy enough...“

Their banter became a soothing background noise as Virdon’s thoughts drifted back to Urko. Galen was right; they had nowhere else to go but away - and according to Galen’s map, everything West of the Forbidden Zone was a scorching, impassable desert. To the East, the ocean; and in the South, the apes.

Urko would know this, too, of course. His lieutenant had been right - they would meet again. Pete had begun talking of weapons, but Virdon was loathe to start carrying a gun; not only was it illegal for humans - they couldn’t even carry a knife, and had to ask Galen to hand it out when they needed to shave - but if one of them ever killed an ape, it wouldn’t just be Urko’s private hunting party on their tail, but every adult ape in the district, civilian or not, police officer-slash-soldier or not.

No, he still favoured outsmarting Urko over outgunning him. Although he admitted to himself that it had been a combination of both that had saved them two days ago. Ironically, he hadn’t played the outsmarting part.

He’d had no choice - Urko would’ve killed him... killed him for having uncovered this world’s greatest secret: the truth of humankind’s lost and forgotten past. That was the real reason he’d never stop hunting them. Perhaps they’d really have no choice in the end. Like Ahab’s whale.

He hadn’t told Pete yet; he didn’t know if he could. Pete hadn’t believed there could be a way back for them from the beginning, yet here he was, whether out of loyalty or unadmitted hope, Virdon couldn’t say. It was this uncertainty that made it impossible for him to foresee his friend’s reactions: would he feel vindicated? Start a war to win back the planet for the humans?

He... needed more time to think about it. He’d need to find the right moment to tell him.

But not today.


	7. Chapter 7

**2080**

The corridor was cool, a welcome respite from the scorching heat outside. Helen dangled her legs from the chair Gina had sat her in, and sipped her „fizzy water,“ as she called it, while Gina went back to the vending machine to get something to drink for herself. Her steps echoed from the bare walls; this part of the building seemed abandoned, and she had checked the door number twice, just to be sure that it was really the lab where Chris got his tutoring lessons from the mysterious professor Hasslein.

She returned to Helen with some tea-and-fruit mix **-** Green Tea and Cherry - and sat down beside her with a little sigh. The cool air and the silence made her aware how hot and tired she felt. It had been a long way from the Virdons’ home to the ANSA facilities, even though they had taken the bus to get out of the city. Then they had almost been turned away at the gates, until Gina had mentioned Chris, and Helen had started to cry - the security man probably thought they were both still too young to steal any secrets.

It had seemed like a no-brainer when she had first thought of it - show Helen the site where all those ships she was drawing were launched, surprise Chris, and sneak a look at the man he worshipped like a god. In the two years since she had confronted him on the street, Chris had adamantly refused to take her to the institute, or to show her what he was working on. He argued that physics didn’t interest her, and that the kind of physics he and the professor were working on was way over her head anyway.

Gina had to admit that Chris was right on both counts, although the way he had made his point still made her furious. She really didn’t understand that temporal mechanics stuff, and she didn’t care enough to really dig in and try to wrap her mind around it. She was more interested in biology - virology, microbiology, biochemistry...

Well. So they both had their specialties. They’d be one of those scientist couples with scarily intelligent children...

Like Helen. She was only five, but she could already read and write, and lately, they had started with adding and subtracting numbers, using jelly beans, and Helen was already figuring out multiplication. She’d probably become another physics ace. Gina didn’t know how she’d feel about being outsmarted in physics by an eight-year-old, or ten-year-old girl, but by that time, she’d be a biology student herself, if all went according to plan, and could always claim that she just didn’t have the time to study phyics on top of everything else.

„Can we go to Chris now?“ Helen asked, and Gina’s ears, trained by years of babysitting her, picked up on the whining undertone in her voice. She had to be tired, and hungry, and the reward that Gina had promised her - her big brother, a god among men - hadn’t shown up yet. It wouldn’t take long until tears would roll down her chubby little face.

No, it had been a stupid idea. They should go home; maybe they sold crayons at the souvenir shop in the main building, or coloring books with planets and spaceships-

The door opened, and Chris and an older man were standing so suddenly in the corridor that Gina flinched, and Helen hiccuped.

For a moment, they stared at each other, everyone too stunned to react.

The older man recovered first. He was tall and slim, with short-cropped silver hair and cool gray eyes that glittered with sardonic amusement. „Why, Mr. Virdon - isn’t it a bit early to start a family?“

Gina felt heat creep up into her face, and saw the same heat coloring Chris’ cheeks. „That’s my sister,“ he said gruffly, „and her babysitter. What are you doing here?“

The heat intensified, reaching up to her scalp; Gina didn’t know what stung more - Chris' question, or the fact that he had introduced her as Helen’s babysitter, and not as his girlfriend.

„We made a surprise!“ Helen crowed, beaming at her brother.

„Well, you certainly succeeded,“ the older man - Hasslein - commented dryly. „I must have a word with security...“

„We just wanted to meet Chris,“ Gina said defensively. „We didn’t mean to steal anything.“

„Oh, I doubt you’d be _able_ to steal anything from here, girl,“ Hasslein said cooly. „But this is a restricted area, where only authorized personnel is allowed. And you, I’m afraid, aren’t authorized to be here, even if you’re the babysitter of Chris' little sister.“ His gaze rested on Helen for a moment, who held up a crumpled piece of paper to show Chris her latest rendition of the _Daedalus,_ and Gina froze at the expression in those cool eyes.

Hasslein crouched in front of her. „That is an excellent representation of our ship,“ he said, and Helen hugged her drawing to her chest. „What’s your name?“

Helen looked to her brother for guidance, clearly intimidated by the strange man.

„Her name’s Helen,“ Chris muttered, seemingly embarrassed by the fact that Hasslein now knew another member of his family. Gina felt bad all of a sudden - as if she had exposed a part of his life to his mentor that Chris had wanted to protect.

„Helen,“ Hasslein repeated. „That’s a nice name. Reminds me of someone I once knew. And how old is she?“

„Five.“ Chris glared at Gina, and she dropped her gaze to the warming tea in her hand. This had been a horrible idea.

„Do you want to see the machine that makes sparks, Helen?“ Hasslein had returned his attention to Helen, who was squirming in her seat; but at the mention of sparks, she perked up.

„I wanna see the sparkles!“

„Another time,“ Chris cut in. „Mom will get mad if we’re late.“

Hasslein rose. „Ah, yes. We don’t want to rouse Mrs. Virdon’s attention.“He smiled, and Gina realized that Hasslein knew that Chris was coming for his lessons without his mother’s knowledge or permission. „I’ll see you tomorrow, then - without your entourage.“

Chris didn’t move even after Hasslein had left; he stared down at Gina, fists clenched at his side, until she wished he’d succumb to the rage she could see in his eyes, get it over with.

„I’m sorry,“ she finally said. „I didn’t mean to embarrass you. We thought it’d be a nice surprise.“

„Don’t come here again,“ was all he said, before he turned and stomped down the corridor.

Helen hopped off her seat and ran after him. „Chris, wait! I made a pictsure for you! Look! Chris, look!“

Gina hurried after both of them, and overtook Chris, forcing him to stop. „Jesus, don’t run like that! Helen can’t keep up with you!“

„She shouldn’t even be here!“ He brushed past her, with long strides that even Gina had difficulty to match. She grabbed his arm.

She realized it had been a mistake when he tore away and pushed her, the heel of his hand against her breastbone, making her stumble back a step or two. „Get out of my way!“

„Don’t be such an asshole!“ She pointed down the corridor, where Helen was still trying to catch up to them, stumbling on her short legs. „This wasn’t her idea, so don’t take your anger out on her!“

„No, that was _your_ ass-brained idea! What do you want here?“ Chris’ face was still red, but it wasn’t embarrassment, Gina suddenly realized; it was anger. He hadn’t been mortified that Hasslein met his family, he’d been livid that Gina had broken into his sanctuary.

The corridor seemed to morph around her, as she suddenly understood that _this_ was his home. Not his room under the roof, stuffed with physics books and model ships; not the back porch where they had been drinking lemonade and made plans for the future.

Not with his mom, or Helen.

Or her.

„You’re right,“ she said shakily. „It was a stupid idea, and I’m sorry. I won’t come here again.“

„Oh, forget it!“ Chris pointed at Helen, who had finally caught up to them and was now looking from one to the other, her face already red with the crying bout that would break loose any moment now. Helen hated it when they were fighting; it was as if her world broke down then.

„She’s been here now, she’s seen... everything, she’s gonna tell Mom!“ Chris was shouting now, and Gina saw the first tears roll down Helen’s cheeks.

„She hasn’t seen anything,“ Gina said helplessly.

„She saw _him!“_ Chris roared. He ignored Helen, who was tugging at his shirt now, hiccuping with sobs. „She’s _five!_ How do you think this’ll turn out?“

„She’s not going to tell anything!“ Gina crouched down before Helen and wiped the tears from her face. „Hey, Lennie,“ she cooed. „Don’t cry, everything’s fine. Chris is just... he’s just...“ _Being an assole again._ “... Chris wants to make a surprise for your mommy, you know? Like we made a surprise for him?“

Helen sniffled and breathed heavily, but the mention of a surprise had calmed her down enough to listen to Gina. Above them, Chris snorted and folded his arms. Gina ignored him.

„Whatsa-prize?“ Helen snuffled, and Gina wished for a hanky.

„He wants to find your daddy,“ she said. Above her, Chris groaned.

Helen’s eyes went huge. „My daddy?“

Gina nodded. „But it’s a big surprise for mommy, you know? So we mustn’t spoil it. We must _not tell mommy._ Or it won’t be a surprise anymore. Do you understand?“

Helen nodded eagerly. Chris snorted again. „She’ll forget it after five minutes. I’m so screwed. Thanks a lot, Gina.“

Gina chewed on her lip. Helen _was_ little; she’d probably really forget it, and blurt it out to Mrs. Virdon.

„That man you saw with Chris,“ she said, following a sudden intuition. „Do you know who that was?“

Helen shook her head.

„That was the wizard,“ Gina said, remembering the fear in Helen’s eyes when Hasslein had scrutinized her. „The wizard can help Chris to find your daddy, but if he sees that you tell anyone, he won’t help Chris anymore.“ She leaned towards Helen. „And he can always see and hear what you do and say. Because he’s a wizard. He can do magic. He has this computer, and there he can see you, on the screen.“

Helen gaped at her. „Even when I’m on the loo?“

Gina hesitated. But she had no idea if Mrs. Virdon wouldn’t be in the bathroom when Helen had to use the potty. Better not to take any risks. „Even then. But he won’t look,“ she added hastily. „He only listens if you tell the secret to anyone.“

That didn’t reassure Helen, though. With the relentless logic of a five-year-old, she honed in on the next complication. „But what if I have to toot?“

Chris snickered. „Then he won’t have to smell the stink, at least. Yeah,“ he patted Helen’s head, „you just have to toot silently, Len.“

He turned and walked towards the exit, but slowly this time. His relaxed shoulders told Gina that her solution had worked, at least for now; or maybe it had been poor Lennie’s distress over the bathroom problem that had cheered him up.

She took Helen’s hand and joined him. „So, what have you been up to this time, in there?“

„Just testing some new calculations,“ Chris said with a dismissive wave of his hand. „Professor Hasslein says we’re almost good to go. It’s just the damn bureaucracy that’s holding us up.“ He pensively stared ahead. „I dunno if I should be angry at ANSA for delaying the mission, or happy that they’ll wait until I’m of age... Professor Hasslein says I’ll be on the ship no matter what, if I’m over eighteen.“

Gina fervently hoped the bureaucrats at ANSA would get their asses in gear before Chris turned eighteen. Maybe she was just superstitious, but she didn’t have a good feeling when she imagined him on the bridge of the _Daedalus._

But of course the professor would feed that hope of Chris. Every other sentence nowadays started with „Professor Hasslein says...“ It was nauseating.

„No matter if you’re on the ship or not, you’ll have made an important contribution with your work in there,“ she said. „And I’m sure your dad will just be glad to be home, even if you don’t personally haul him up from whatever planet he was stranded on.“

„Yeah,“ Chris said slowly.

„I wonder where they’ll find your dad,“ Gina mused. „Do you think they’ll bring back samples of alien plants and animals? Or would they be afraid of contaminating our ecosphere?“

Their conversation veered into the intricacies of alien ecosystems, and neither of them paid attention to Helen anymore, who silently toddled between them, a frown creasing her brow, silently mouthing the thoughts that were haunting her now.

„The wizard can find Daddy...“

 

 


End file.
